SINGAPORE: Of the many things disrupted by the pandemic, childhood is a big one.
With shutters down and vigilance up in the last three years, children in Singapore and around the world have frequently been confined within the four walls of home. Outdoor play was traded for online entertainment, and social interactions were limited to immediate family members. Even recess in school became a no-mingling, subdued affair.
While it kept the kids safe, recent focus has been on the pandemic’s long-term effects on children’s mental health. Notably, a piece shared by UNICEF found that the extended period of isolation has led to children missing out on key developmental opportunities, leading to a lag in the formation of core social skills, such as making friends and getting along with others.
Such delays are worrying because these soft skills will be crucial in helping them navigate life, whether looking for a job, forming meaningful relationships, or overcoming everyday challenges.
The hard truth is that for our children to thrive and secure their future, they need to cultivate these core skills as early and as comprehensively as possible. I think it fitting to propose a time-honoured solution — tinkering, or hands-on play.
AN OLD APPROACH SOLUTION TO A NEW PROBLEM
More than five decades ago, the toys my childhood friends and I played with were do-it-yourself contraptions like rubber-band guns, wooden swords, and cardboard houses. Building a toy out of common household items involved trial and error, improvisation and experimentation.
Often, we would try to enhance it with new materials and techniques to make them more durable and look “cooler” than what everyone else brought to school. Looking back, those early experiences of toy-making taught me the values of resilience and resourcefulness and forged unbreakable bonds between my friends and me.