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Free play builds resilience, creativity, and emotional regulation.

Parents can foster growth by managing their anxiety, not their child.

Technology should complement—not replace—imaginative, social play.

Children grow by solving problems, not having every problem solved.

Watching Toy Story 5 with my grandchildren reminded me that some of the most important conversations about child development begin where imagination flourishes. Beneath the humor and adventure lies a thoughtful exploration of one of the defining questions of contemporary childhood: What happens when imaginative, child-led play gradually gives way to increasingly screen-based experiences?

As a family therapist, I find myself asking a slightly different question. Not simply what do children need, but what helps parents create the emotional conditions in which children can flourish? From a Bowen family systems perspective, healthy development is less about adults carefully managing children and more about gradually raising young people who can think for themselves while remaining deeply connected to others. Free play provides one of the richest settings for this kind of growth in childhood.

Why Imaginative Play Still Matters

Developmental psychology has long recognised that imaginative play nurtures creativity, emotional regulation, empathy, flexible thinking, and problem-solving. When children organise games, negotiate rules, work through disagreements, and recover from mistakes, they strengthen capacities that no adult can simply teach through instruction.

Bowen family systems........

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