Luckily, experts agree that children require lots of unstructured play time, for their emotional, social and cognitive development. It is also the first way that kids start to use and develop their imagination. Left alone to manage their own play environment, children create their own worlds - often with surprising results. Despite what the slick marketers of the endless film and TV tie-ins would have you believe, children can summon up a magical world without the assistance of wisecracking, pre-named robots with their own branded Happy Meal and Saturday morning cartoon.