The UAE is the best country in the region that encourages positive play habits in children according to the fourth edition of the Fun City Childrens Play Index. The country is the top in all three age groups surveyed 2-5 years 6-8 years and 9-12 years.

Globally the UAE ranks third in the 9-12 age group and fourth in the 2-5 and 6-8 age groups.

The survey collected data from more than 2235 mothers living in these countries according to YouGov. They conducted online surveys with mothers aged 18 and above who had children between the ages of 2 to 12 years. In the UAE 464 parents were interviewed for the survey.

This ranking in the age group 9-12 years highlights the impressive effort and work by the government illustrating a clear focus in spreading nationwide positive awareness about the importance of play for childrens overall development in the UAE by bringing about a balance between scholastic and leisure activities said Silvio Liedtke chief operating officer of Landmark Leisure which conducted the survey. There are more parks cycling and running tracks and so much better facilities for children to spend more time playing outside or active play.

In 2012 the first ever play index was an assessment of playtime habits among children in the UAE. Oman Qatar and Bahrain. In 2013 and 2014 it included a qualitative index to understand the ideal play for children among different age groups. The 2015 research expanded the research to include Australia the UK China Singapore and Sweden to benchmark GCC against other developed nations.

Aamnah Husain qualified psychologist and parenting expert said: The play index brings in lots of knowledge and clarity to parents as it is drawing parallels and contrasts between childrens lifestyle and play activities in our region and those from other countries in Asia Europe and Australia.

I am also glad to see that the amount of active play children in the region enjoy competing with the developed countries especially physical play creative play and social entertainment.

Digital gaming seems to be one of the most coveted activities among children and for that I emphasise on the need for parental control and supervision in this area.

Fun City Childrens Play Index explained:

The index sheds light on the amount of time that children between the ages of 2-12 years spend on play as well as their playing patterns. The research aims to raise awareness about the need for a well balanced developmental approach towards children with a combination of indoor and outdoor play activities

Key findings of the study:

According to the study on a typical day children in the GCC have an average of seven hours of free time on hand out of over 12 hours of awake time. Free time is defined as awake time excluding all essential and routine activities. Children in Bahrain have a little less actual playtime compared to other GCC countries. the average number of activities was marginally higher in the UAE.

Childrens free time in GCC is well used as physical play has doubled from last years percentage reaching 22.5 per cent this year.Creative activities have increased from 3.7 per cent to 7.7 per cent this year as well as social entertainment which has increased from 2 per cent to 8.5 per cent. The younger age groups spend relatively more time playing as compared to the older children.

Children in the GCC engage in two to three activities during their free time a result that is comparable with the surveyed global countries while it has been noticed that the type of activities done in the global countries contribute more towards childrens development.Childrens activities around social media in the GCC are on par with children in global countries with an average of 1.1 per cent.