Restoring Childhood by Peter Gray

Restoring Childhood by Peter Gray

'Offers a road map for making it easier for parents to trust their kids more, worry about them less, and let them be kids.' WILLIAM R. STIXRUD, clinical neuropsychologist and co-author of The Self-Driven Child

'For anyone anxious to understand the real causes of the struggles of recent generations, read this book.' NED JOHNSON, co-author of The Self-Driven Child

'This book will forever change how you see your kids and how they see themselves.' JENNIFER BREHENY WALLACE, author of Mattering
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What if the answer to the youth mental health crisis isn't less screen time-but instead, more independence?

We have spent the last few decades laser-focused on improving safety for children. We have supervised them more, and made their lives more achievement-oriented, with the good intentions of helping them find success in the increasingly competitive adult world. But what if all that protection is part of the reason kids are now struggling?

In Restoring Childhood, author, researcher, and psychology professor Peter Gray argues that children need something that seems to be missing from modern childhood: the freedom to play, explore, solve problems and take age-appropriate risks without adults constantly directing them. When we assume children are fragile, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Overprotection leads to increased rates of anxiety and depression in children, but, as Restoring Childhood shows, independence builds children's confidence, resilience, and emotional strength.

Restoring Childhood is a radical examination of how certain societal trends - from round-the-clock news coverage, to increasing reliance on cars, to growing wealth inequality - conspired to create a fundamentally anti-child environment. And if we continue to tighten the leash on our kids, no amount of screen-time restriction will reverse the alarming mental health crisis we see our kids enduring today.

We must restore childhood to children. We must, individually and collectively, prioritise adult-free play, and the time and space for it - in our schools, in our neighbourhoods and as parents.
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'Asks us to look at how our love, fear and obsession with perfection may be getting in the way of what our kids desperately need.' Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of How to Raise an Adult

'Peter Gray is one of the world's experts on the evolution of childhood play . . . He forces us to rethink our convictions on how schools should be designed to accommodate the ways that children learn.' STEVEN PINKER

Dr. Peter Gray is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Boston College. His current research and writing focus on children's natural ways of learning and the life-long value of play. He is a founding member of the nonprofit Alliance for Self-Directed Education and a founding board member of the nonprofit Let Grow. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed introductory psychology textbook Psychology, now in its 8th edition, which Steven Pinker has used and lauded, first at MIT and then at Harvard; and Free to Learn (Basic Books, 2013), which has been published in 18 languages. He has written for Boston Magazine, Salon, Aeon, Huffington Post, The Independent, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many others. He has appeared multiple times on NPR, including All Things Considered. He is a frequent podcast guest, and he is often an invited keynote speaker at conferences on play, education, and child development.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780349446905
ISBN 10	0349446903
Title	Restoring Childhood
Author	Peter Gray
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Piatkus
Year published	2026-09-03
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.