I want to share something that I wasn’t aware of when I first read this article. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes a Child’s Right to Play; in their General Comment #17 in 2013, they define Play as follows:
Children’s play is any behaviour, activity or process initiated, controlled and structured by children themselves; it takes place whenever and wherever opportunities arise. Caregivers may contribute to the creation of environments in which play takes place, but play itself is non-compulsory, driven by intrinsic motivation and undertaken for its own sake, rather than as a means to an end. Play involves the exercise of autonomy, physical, mental or emotional activity, and has the potential to take infinite forms, either in groups or alone. These forms will change and be adapted throughout the course of childhood. The key characteristics of play are fun, uncertainty, challenge, flexibility and non-productivity. Together, these factors contribute to the enjoyment it produces and the consequent incentive to continue to play. While play is often considered non-essential, the Committee reaffirms that it is a fundamental and vital dimension of the pleasure of childhood, as well as an essential component of physical, social, cognitive, emotional and spiritual development.
I believe it is useful to refer to this as it gives further credibility to your arguments
I'm not sure if you meant to write caregivers; but anyway for starters I wouldn't try to create spaces for play - everywhere is potentially a space for play, although some places may have to be restricted because they are hazardous or interfere with others' rights / well-being.
I would also suggest resisting the temptation to buy this that and the other toy or supplies unless the child asks for it (still doesn't mean you have to get it - you have to consider whether you can afford it, whether you have room for it, etc)
I am not able to respond in more detail now, but if this is a conversation you find useful to continue we can resume later
I worked in a play based environment and we would look for the ways children would play and set up other areas that could spark a continuation of their ideas. Google play schemas (very fascinating) and loose parts. Going off what Sifaan wrote- you DON’T have to purchase anything. Using loose parts from recycled material or other items you collect (think corks, pieces of wood, golf tees, pots and pans, etc.) allows the children to be more imaginative than buying the latest toy that can only be played with in one way.
I was interested to see you define a difference between play and being playful. I use the two words to talk about learning to write. When we explore an idea using prompts then we write in a "playful" explorative way. When children pick up materials for themselves and make books/signs/menus then that is writing "play". Many teacher have only learned to teach writing in a structured manner so bringing in both "playful" and "play" is important to instilling a love of writing. Thanks for your informative newsletters.
What about video games? They seem to satisfy the defining terms offered above for play.
Most of the kids I know play a LOT of video games or games on their phones or other screens. With this in mind, can we then say that kids don't get enough play?
I enjoyed learning more about what is and is not play. I worked at an early childhood center that valued play, but adults (I have to include myself
here as well!) were often frustrated when children did not play with the items as intended or follow other adult-prescribed rules. I know educators mean well but I think we often miss the mark because we are worried what others might think or deem acceptable and of educational value.
Hi Jo, There is an absolutely wonderful story relating what can happen when teachers, intending to give children more freedom to express their creativity, become frustrated when the children don't respond as expected, in James Herndon's "How to Survive In Your Native Land", an account of Herndon's experiences teaching at a middle school in South San Francisco in the 1960's.
Great book! I remember him calling it "a new world" (which reverberate and stuck with me) when he filled a room with cool stuff (microscopes, art supplies, etc) and set them loose. Sounded like an amazing learning experience for him! A bit humorous too -- it took them a little while to figure out what to do with all that freedom 😂😊. Is that where he talks about the hurricane needing a center?
I think adults can and do play to varying degrees, but it's rarer (?)
I think that adults ABSOLUTELY can relearn to play -- there are many ways, but learning to "play (with?) music", for example, by sitting with others, making sounds, and then trying to make sounds that sound good TOGETHER (not Learning Songs, just exploring sound-making) is one that me and a number of my friends enjoy a lot!
I think it can be a great challenge for adults to really engage in full play with children, but not impossible. I make it a rule for myself that I will only join if I'm actually having fun! (and invited... I treat that as a great honour) It's also great fun when playing for example boardgames to have the option to adapt the rules if needed to make it sometimes more accessible for less experienced players but also presenting a "real" challenge for those who seek that experience... I'm always amazed how young people (that are not indoctrinated to much by the coercive and competitive nature mainly presented in the mainstream world...) manage to include all age groups and make it fun for everybody ❤️ it's often so easy for them to find solutions and in contrast for most adults simply impossible. That's probably the cause why so many young people can not picture adults in play... they are simply no fun 😅 and play is indeed a very serious thing (and that's no contradiction to the fun part)
Another book recommendation! Item #2 reminds me of The Regiment and The White Regiment by John Dalmas (The Kalif's War in the same series isn't as good). It's a sci-fi series about mercenaries and their philosophy in which is the highest "level" for any activity, including war.
I am enjoying this substack and, as an educational researcher, am appreciative of your work and advocacy for play. However, I am pondering whether or not the “self-directed” requirement in your definition of play, which excludes all adult-directed activities from the research category of play, helps to clarify and delimit the phenomenon for future research.
Gordon Burghardt’s seminal 2005 book The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the Limits begins with a photograph of a mother bonobo bouncing her infant with her feet. Do you exclude this behavior from the research category of play since it is adult-directed? If so, how does your definition of play improve on Burghardt’s (1. Limited immediate function, 2. Endogenous component, 3. Structural or temporal difference, 4. Repeated performance, 5. Relaxed field) in terms of clarifying and delimiting the phenomenon of play for scientific and interdisciplinary study?
My sense is that you are making a thought-provoking and counter-cultural argument for the educational benefits of self-directed play in humans. And I am persuaded by many aspects of this argument. But to exclude all adult-directed activities from the research category of play seems curious.
In any case, I am grateful for your work and would love to hear your thoughts!
I think that "Time in’ and ‘time out’ really capture the essence of play. 'Time in' is when we fully immerse ourselves in creativity and imagination, while 'time out' brings us back to reality, even if just for a moment. And I think that it is this balance between stepping into a free world and returning to the real one is what makes play so enriching, and the balance that creates between freedom and structure, creativity and reality
I had not considered that there are sets of mental rules involved in play, but how you explain it makes sense. For example, in play fighting, we would not injure someone or throw them down. There is an accepted social idea that makes us use restraint. Similarly, there are internal rules we follow in playing pretend or making a sand castle. We know that the character isn't really ourselves, and we know that the castle will not be permanent. I will think about the rules that might be underlying the play of children in my class.
I was interested to read where you discussed the idea behind self-restraint and how children learn to practice this in their play, especially physically through 'fighting' games. It got me thinking further about how children could use this play to process violence they see, either in the real-world so to speak, or through the media. Witnessing something violent as a young child could likely prompt the child to further aim to understand what they saw, and as such recreate it in their play. If they do take the physical side of it too far and hurt a playmate, this is a further lesson in restraint, and so instead of violent television, for example, negatively influencing the youth, it could in fact teach and guide children on how not to behave with their peers. How to restrain their violent urges so as to not cause harm.
Very interesting read all in all, thank you for sharing!
Our and our children’s lives are bombarded with technology, i.e. we always seem to be looking at one screen or another; a phone, a tablet or the TV. Is this not taking away from their time to play? To use and discover imagination, creativity and exploration? Are we not forgetting how to play because of it?
A very interesting fact and something I never really thought about.
When I think about free play - I used to think most kids would think the same way. But even this can differ from culture to culture re rules and regulations set out in certain cultures. What is taboo or not?
''For example, in the real world you can get home by any of an infinite number of routes, whenever you choose, but in the fantasy world of baseball you must get “home” by running from base to base around a diamond-shaped path, only after a pitch occurs. Play is embodied fiction."
As an avid sports enthusiast and player, I like to think that playing or even watching others play sports ignites the creative spark in me. When i watch someone playing basketball, Im watching an unrehearsed dance, someone entirely in the flow of play.
Play is not just a un or unnecessary activity but a key part of human development and plays an important role in helping us become social , flexible and creative people
Hola Peter! agradezco mucho esta serie de Cartas que en lo personal estoy comenzando.El Rol del juego en mi aprendizaje de nuevas habilidades me ha permitido disfrutar de los medios: El medio siendo el fin :).Y junto a esto he podido ir desarrollando mis propias maneras de compartirlo con las personas que toman clases conmigo y lo veo dia a dia : El juego es parte fundamental de nuestras vidas :) Una vez mas gracias!
I want to share something that I wasn’t aware of when I first read this article. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes a Child’s Right to Play; in their General Comment #17 in 2013, they define Play as follows:
Children’s play is any behaviour, activity or process initiated, controlled and structured by children themselves; it takes place whenever and wherever opportunities arise. Caregivers may contribute to the creation of environments in which play takes place, but play itself is non-compulsory, driven by intrinsic motivation and undertaken for its own sake, rather than as a means to an end. Play involves the exercise of autonomy, physical, mental or emotional activity, and has the potential to take infinite forms, either in groups or alone. These forms will change and be adapted throughout the course of childhood. The key characteristics of play are fun, uncertainty, challenge, flexibility and non-productivity. Together, these factors contribute to the enjoyment it produces and the consequent incentive to continue to play. While play is often considered non-essential, the Committee reaffirms that it is a fundamental and vital dimension of the pleasure of childhood, as well as an essential component of physical, social, cognitive, emotional and spiritual development.
I believe it is useful to refer to this as it gives further credibility to your arguments
I wonder, then, how caretakers can best create spaces for play
I'm not sure if you meant to write caregivers; but anyway for starters I wouldn't try to create spaces for play - everywhere is potentially a space for play, although some places may have to be restricted because they are hazardous or interfere with others' rights / well-being.
I would also suggest resisting the temptation to buy this that and the other toy or supplies unless the child asks for it (still doesn't mean you have to get it - you have to consider whether you can afford it, whether you have room for it, etc)
I am not able to respond in more detail now, but if this is a conversation you find useful to continue we can resume later
wonderful ! thanks for this thoughtful reply. "everywhere is potentially a space for play" I love that perspective and agree 100%
I worked in a play based environment and we would look for the ways children would play and set up other areas that could spark a continuation of their ideas. Google play schemas (very fascinating) and loose parts. Going off what Sifaan wrote- you DON’T have to purchase anything. Using loose parts from recycled material or other items you collect (think corks, pieces of wood, golf tees, pots and pans, etc.) allows the children to be more imaginative than buying the latest toy that can only be played with in one way.
I was interested to see you define a difference between play and being playful. I use the two words to talk about learning to write. When we explore an idea using prompts then we write in a "playful" explorative way. When children pick up materials for themselves and make books/signs/menus then that is writing "play". Many teacher have only learned to teach writing in a structured manner so bringing in both "playful" and "play" is important to instilling a love of writing. Thanks for your informative newsletters.
Ah, yes! This question is precisely one of the reason I started reading this 'stack'!
What about video games? They seem to satisfy the defining terms offered above for play.
Most of the kids I know play a LOT of video games or games on their phones or other screens. With this in mind, can we then say that kids don't get enough play?
(Came here from the discussion at Haidt's "After Babel": https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/the-play-deficit)
Dan, I just saw this now. Yes, video gaming is play and research shows it provides the benefits of other forms of play. See https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/201803/benefits-play-revealed-in-research-video-gaming
Maybe play is kind of like breathing -- it's good to breathe a LOT, sure, but the more the better (?) 😂
I enjoyed learning more about what is and is not play. I worked at an early childhood center that valued play, but adults (I have to include myself
here as well!) were often frustrated when children did not play with the items as intended or follow other adult-prescribed rules. I know educators mean well but I think we often miss the mark because we are worried what others might think or deem acceptable and of educational value.
Thanks for this comment, Jo. I have heard similar comments from early educators at conferences where I have spoken about the value of play.
Hi Jo, There is an absolutely wonderful story relating what can happen when teachers, intending to give children more freedom to express their creativity, become frustrated when the children don't respond as expected, in James Herndon's "How to Survive In Your Native Land", an account of Herndon's experiences teaching at a middle school in South San Francisco in the 1960's.
Great book! I remember him calling it "a new world" (which reverberate and stuck with me) when he filled a room with cool stuff (microscopes, art supplies, etc) and set them loose. Sounded like an amazing learning experience for him! A bit humorous too -- it took them a little while to figure out what to do with all that freedom 😂😊. Is that where he talks about the hurricane needing a center?
Thank you for the recommendation, it sounds like a great read.
Do you think adults engage in play in the same way ? Or do adults play at all based on these parameters?
I think adults can and do play to varying degrees, but it's rarer (?)
I think that adults ABSOLUTELY can relearn to play -- there are many ways, but learning to "play (with?) music", for example, by sitting with others, making sounds, and then trying to make sounds that sound good TOGETHER (not Learning Songs, just exploring sound-making) is one that me and a number of my friends enjoy a lot!
John Holt wrote a great book about learning to play with music later in life, called Never Too Late, fwiw.
I think it can be a great challenge for adults to really engage in full play with children, but not impossible. I make it a rule for myself that I will only join if I'm actually having fun! (and invited... I treat that as a great honour) It's also great fun when playing for example boardgames to have the option to adapt the rules if needed to make it sometimes more accessible for less experienced players but also presenting a "real" challenge for those who seek that experience... I'm always amazed how young people (that are not indoctrinated to much by the coercive and competitive nature mainly presented in the mainstream world...) manage to include all age groups and make it fun for everybody ❤️ it's often so easy for them to find solutions and in contrast for most adults simply impossible. That's probably the cause why so many young people can not picture adults in play... they are simply no fun 😅 and play is indeed a very serious thing (and that's no contradiction to the fun part)
Another book recommendation! Item #2 reminds me of The Regiment and The White Regiment by John Dalmas (The Kalif's War in the same series isn't as good). It's a sci-fi series about mercenaries and their philosophy in which is the highest "level" for any activity, including war.
Fascinating concept. Thanks for the addition to my Amazon wish list.
I am enjoying this substack and, as an educational researcher, am appreciative of your work and advocacy for play. However, I am pondering whether or not the “self-directed” requirement in your definition of play, which excludes all adult-directed activities from the research category of play, helps to clarify and delimit the phenomenon for future research.
Gordon Burghardt’s seminal 2005 book The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the Limits begins with a photograph of a mother bonobo bouncing her infant with her feet. Do you exclude this behavior from the research category of play since it is adult-directed? If so, how does your definition of play improve on Burghardt’s (1. Limited immediate function, 2. Endogenous component, 3. Structural or temporal difference, 4. Repeated performance, 5. Relaxed field) in terms of clarifying and delimiting the phenomenon of play for scientific and interdisciplinary study?
My sense is that you are making a thought-provoking and counter-cultural argument for the educational benefits of self-directed play in humans. And I am persuaded by many aspects of this argument. But to exclude all adult-directed activities from the research category of play seems curious.
In any case, I am grateful for your work and would love to hear your thoughts!
I think that "Time in’ and ‘time out’ really capture the essence of play. 'Time in' is when we fully immerse ourselves in creativity and imagination, while 'time out' brings us back to reality, even if just for a moment. And I think that it is this balance between stepping into a free world and returning to the real one is what makes play so enriching, and the balance that creates between freedom and structure, creativity and reality
I had not considered that there are sets of mental rules involved in play, but how you explain it makes sense. For example, in play fighting, we would not injure someone or throw them down. There is an accepted social idea that makes us use restraint. Similarly, there are internal rules we follow in playing pretend or making a sand castle. We know that the character isn't really ourselves, and we know that the castle will not be permanent. I will think about the rules that might be underlying the play of children in my class.
I was interested to read where you discussed the idea behind self-restraint and how children learn to practice this in their play, especially physically through 'fighting' games. It got me thinking further about how children could use this play to process violence they see, either in the real-world so to speak, or through the media. Witnessing something violent as a young child could likely prompt the child to further aim to understand what they saw, and as such recreate it in their play. If they do take the physical side of it too far and hurt a playmate, this is a further lesson in restraint, and so instead of violent television, for example, negatively influencing the youth, it could in fact teach and guide children on how not to behave with their peers. How to restrain their violent urges so as to not cause harm.
Very interesting read all in all, thank you for sharing!
Our and our children’s lives are bombarded with technology, i.e. we always seem to be looking at one screen or another; a phone, a tablet or the TV. Is this not taking away from their time to play? To use and discover imagination, creativity and exploration? Are we not forgetting how to play because of it?
Talking about mental rules -
A very interesting fact and something I never really thought about.
When I think about free play - I used to think most kids would think the same way. But even this can differ from culture to culture re rules and regulations set out in certain cultures. What is taboo or not?
''For example, in the real world you can get home by any of an infinite number of routes, whenever you choose, but in the fantasy world of baseball you must get “home” by running from base to base around a diamond-shaped path, only after a pitch occurs. Play is embodied fiction."
As an avid sports enthusiast and player, I like to think that playing or even watching others play sports ignites the creative spark in me. When i watch someone playing basketball, Im watching an unrehearsed dance, someone entirely in the flow of play.
Play is not just a un or unnecessary activity but a key part of human development and plays an important role in helping us become social , flexible and creative people
Hola Peter! agradezco mucho esta serie de Cartas que en lo personal estoy comenzando.El Rol del juego en mi aprendizaje de nuevas habilidades me ha permitido disfrutar de los medios: El medio siendo el fin :).Y junto a esto he podido ir desarrollando mis propias maneras de compartirlo con las personas que toman clases conmigo y lo veo dia a dia : El juego es parte fundamental de nuestras vidas :) Una vez mas gracias!