PLAY

Play helps the child blend the KNOWN and the NEW, stretch the REAL into the POSSIBLE, and work through the EMOTIONS of both. - Sybil M. Berkey, OTR/L

Lakeview Park, Port Clinton, OH

The Importance of Play

Play is core to the human experience! It is how we get to know the world and each other. As Johan Huizinga states that play is a vital characteristic of our species and its culture…we are HOMO LUDENS!

 

The drive to play exists in every child regardless of their medical condition. In their own way, each child strives to engage with the environment around them. 

 

I fully embrace the words of Dr John Richer, PhD in his article Dirt is Good when he says:

 

“The real world is dirty. Children do not learn how to adapt to their world and

flourish in it without getting in touch with it. This means getting dirty. Adults do not continue their learning and do not maintain their adaptation unless they remain in touch. This can mean getting dirty.”

 

How do we do this? We do it through playing in the REAL world. 

Parkersburg, WV Inclusive Splash Pad, Courtesy of Landscape Structures

In the Library

These are resources I go back to again and again around the topic of PLAY!

Play and Child Development

Creative Expression and Play in Early Childhood

(Packer Isenberg, Renck Jalongo)

Play and Child Development (Frost, Wotham, Reifel)

Play and Neuroscience

Play and the Senses

Play for Children with Disabilities

Play and Children's Education Spaces (Schools and Museums)

Creativity
(Csikszentmihalyi)

Reflections on Play