T.E.D. says…

In 2009, Stuart Brown, MD, generated a TED talk called “Play is More Than Just Fun”. The following description of Brown is directly from the National Institute for Play website: “Stuart… is the founder of the National Institute for Play, where he speaks, consults and educates organizations, corporations, universities, and public policy makers about the importance of play in our lives and the unexpected, serious consequences that occur when play is neglected. His background in psychiatry, the evolution of human and animal play, as well as his clinical research into the causes and prevention of violence, have shown him that authentic play is a state of being which can be accessed and used by everyone, and that play is as important to humans as vitamins or sleep.”

One of of my personal favourite things about play is that it is extremely beneficial and educational for people, but it doesn’t FEEL that way. Brown states that “…play is practical, and it’s very important.” This is true, of course, but let’s not tell the kids, okay? Let’s just let them have fun. Kind of like how we hide vitamins and minerals in gummy candies.

While Brown lists many, many different kinds of play, he makes sure to point out that a “…really important part of being a player is imaginative solo play.” This is not to discount every other kind of play, of course; they are all developmentally beneficial. However, at Playsitcity, Imaginative Play (solo or otherwise), is our core focus.

Brown mentioned that he used to be involved in studying felons, which led him to learn more about the effects of depravity in childhood. His academic transition was one that seemed to have surprised him, and led him to create the National Institute for Play. He points out that “…there is some good science. Nothing lights up the brain like play. Three dimensional play fires up the cerebellum, puts a lot of impulses into the frontal lobe (the executive portion), helps contextual memory to be developed, and, and and and… for me it’s been an extremely nourishing scholarly adventure to look at the neuroscience that’s associated with play, and to bring together people who, in their individual disciplines, hadn’t really thought of it that way, and that’s part of what the National Institute for Play is all about.”

Finally, Brown points out that our ability to play might actually be why humans are so resilient, adaptable, and successful as biological creatures. “Neoteny means the retention of immature qualities into adulthood. And we are by physical anthropologists, by many many studies, the most neotenous, the most youthful, the most flexible, the most plastic of all creatures, and therefore, the most playful. And this gives us a leg up on adaptability.”

Cheers to neoteny; go have some fun!

Sources:

https://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_brown_play_is_more_than_just_fun

http://www.nifplay.org/dt_team/stuart-brown-md/

Further Reading:

https://www.playcore.com/news/imaginative-and-pretend-play-part-two