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"The Case for Make-Believe."

By Rich Fisher

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwgs/local-kwgs-836432.mp3

Tulsa, Oklahoma – On today's show, which originally aired last year, we chat with the Boston-based psychologist and ventriloquist Susan Linn. Linn's new book is "The Case for Make-Believe: Saving Play in Our Commercialized World" --- a smart, engaging, and very well-researched study. Linn's argument is that today's American children --- more than ever before, given our hyper-digital, super-technological society --- urgently require the time, space, tools, and traits that are all necessary for creative play. As one reviewer, writing for Publishers Weekly, has noted: "Tragically, Linn claims, play is on a downswing, replaced by TV time and highly marketed media-linked toys and electronic media that discourage real creativity. In fact, despite the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendation to prohibit screen time until the age of two, a study Linn cites reveals that 40 percent of infants under [the age of] three months are regular screen viewers. The director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Linn claims that the demise of play is a public health problem requiring an urgent campaign. She concludes with ways parents can incorporate creative play, while acknowledging the challenge of swimming against the powerful media tide." Linn speaks with our host Rich Fisher by phone on today's edition of StudioTulsa.