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The necessity of Original Play in human development is explored
in the following questions and answers by O. Fred Donaldson, Ph.D.
This information also discusses the role that adults can take in
this process of development. The use of the word
"play" refers to Original Play.
Why is Original Play Important?
Children
learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how
to learn. Play is the optimum learning relationship for a
child. The best learners at whatever age or stage of
development are those that are best prepared to handle change. As
they explore their world, children's play presents them with the
fundamental relationships with which they acquire the basic
feelings, ideas and capacities to effectively absorb from and
adapt to the ever-changing world around them for the rest of their
lives.
What are the benefits of play in a
child's life?
A child who has been allowed to
develop play resources receives many enduring advantages. First,
she develops a universal learning skill. Second, play maximizes
her potential by developing her creativity and imagination.
Third, her relationships with the world and others are based on
loving-kindness. Fourth, play promotes joy, which is
essential for self-esteem and health. Fifth, her learning
process is self-sustained based as it is on her own natural
love of learning and playful engagement with life. Sixth, play
creates a basic trust in the world.
Emotional-Behavioral Benefits
- Reduces fear, anxiety, stress,
irritability
- Creates joy, intimacy,
self-esteem and mastery not based on other's loss of esteem
- Improves emotional flexibility
and openness
- Increases calmness, resilience
and adaptability and ability to deal with surprise and change
- Decreases tactile defensiveness
- Healing process for hurts
Social Benefits
- Enhances feelings of acceptance of
difference
- Increases empathy, compassion,
and sharing
- Creates options and choices
- Models relationships based on
inclusion rather than exclusion
- Alternative to aggressor-victim
model of relationships
- Decreases revenge and need for
self defense
- Improves touch and nonverbal
socialization skills
- Increases attention and
attachment capacities
Bio-Physical Benefits
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Positive
emotions increase the efficiency of immune, endocrine, and
cardiovascular systems
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Decreases
stress, fatigue, injury, and depression
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Increases
range of motion, agility, coordination, balance, flexibility,
vestibular and proprioceptive motion, and fine and gross motor
exploration
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Integrates sensorimotor, kinesthetic and emotional responses
Cognitive Benefits
- Increases efficiency of brain
function
How does play help build strong
learning foundations?
Because later levels of learning are
built upon earlier ones, it is critical that the earliest ones are
allowed to become firm and extensive before a child moves or is
pushed to the next. The qualities of spontaneity, wonder,
creativity, imagination, and trust, are best developed in early
childhood play. Adults know from experience that it is very
difficult to re-learn these skills later in life. But if we allow
adequate time for these early skills to become firmly established,
the child will be better prepared to acquire the later more
sophisticated skills. Most important in play, the learning process
is self-sustained because the natural love of learning is preserved
and strengthened. The power of play also enhances self-esteem and
interpersonal relationships.
How does play promote healthy
interpersonal relationships?
When peers become competitors rather
than companions in the learning process, social relations are
damaged. In healthy play peers are playmates, not competitors.
Consequently, in play the skills of sharing and compassion are
learned.
Does the importance of play and touch
diminish later in a child's life?
No, the power of play as an approach
to life and learning is important throughout life. Our sense of
touch is always "on." Human beings understand loving best
through touch.
Do special-needs children play
differently from other children?
Experts often write that
special-needs children can't or don't play like normally
developing children. When they do they are talking about cultural
play activities and games that are based on skills that
differentiate and exclude children. This is not the play I am
talking about in this discussion. All children can play. As a
playmate I adapt the play to include whoever comes to play. It is
not the child's special need or culture with which I play.
Why don't adults play with
children?
We all know that "play is a
child's business." We treat it, however, as though it were a
child's "busy-ness." Playing with children may sound
simple, but it isn't easy. It is difficult to resist putting
pressure on a child to succeed or do something well or the right
way, rather than allow them to just play with the task at hand. At
other times we impose tasks that meet adult needs rather than those
of the child. What was once our way of engaging with the world has
with age become both trivial and fearful. To put it bluntly, adults
are afraid of playing with children, afraid of being embarrassed,
looking funny and childish, of not being professional, of hurting
and being hurt, of being accused of inappropriate touch, of losing
their jobs, of losing control, and simply not knowing how to play
with children.
What is the adult's role in play?
The adult's role is critical, but
it is neither as an idle bystander nor as an overbearing adult. I’m
suggesting that adults take on the role of a true partner or
playmate. Playing with a child is the easiest and most beneficial
approach. In traditional play adults take certain prescribed roles
such as coach, manager, teacher, director, parent, and referee in
order to maintain safety. In all of these roles the adults are
separate from the children.
I'm suggesting a new role for
adults who model and create a safe playground. This is a
fundamentally new role and relationship for adults to take. To be a
playmate to a child requires a change of mind as well as practice in
new ways of being. Instead of standing apart, an adult playmate is
fully engaged in the play itself. It is the adult's love rather
than their rules that create safety. Not often in education do we
make explicit the importance of love. Again, it is love that creates
the safety within which play happens.
What about touching children in a
time when there is so much fear about touch?
We somehow have come to believe that
in our efforts to stop bad touch, no touch is equal to good touch.
But "no touch" is not "good touch" and it is
also neglect. We must acknowledge that good touch is critically
important to the social, emotional, and cognitive development of all
children, regardless of culture or special needs. While many adults
abstain from touch out of fear, other adults are creating models of
bad touch, which are seen and modeled by children. No touch doesn’t
model good touch.
To feel untouchable is unhealthy and
dangerous. Refusing to touch or play with children makes them feel
rejected. Harsh aggressive touch does not express love regardless of
what we say. Our words do not heal the wounds from abusive touch.
"This hurts me more than it does you" is simply not true.
Play touch is always kind touch. The
adult's role is to model kind touch in a wide variety of
situations even during times of frustration and conflict. The
foundations of emotional, intellectual, and social well-being are
laid in touch.
Isn't play naturally competitive? Doesn't competition help children better learn to compete in the
adult world?
The play of which I am speaking isn't
naturally competitive. In fact, it is the opposite-naturally
cooperative. The basis of this play is kindness and belonging. In
play, one's self-esteem is not based on the loss of others'
esteem.
As a result of constant contesting
adults suffer from what I call cardiosclerosis, or
"hardening of the heart." Play heals this isolation and
separation and helps humans deal with change and surprise without
the need for either victimization or attack.
What are some basic principles to
guide adult participation in children's play?
Children do not come with owner's
manuals. I remember when I was young and the rules for crossing the
street were: STOP, LOOK & LISTEN. These are good guidelines for
adults as they begin to play with children. Too often adults talk
too much. Instead of sharing in play we drown in a sea of words. In
an effort to control we often instill fear and then try to teach.
Remember we are joining children's play, not having them conform
to our play.
There are many skills required to
keep oneself and children safe in play. Many of these are physical
abilities, others are emotional skills. But more important than the
psycho-motor abilities is the courage to first, above all, to give
and receive love.
- Stay in touch
- Be kind
- Include all children
- Be accessible
- Get down
- Be safe
- Be quiet
- Be patient
- Pay attention
- Wear appropriate clothes
- Use soft, gentle touch and voice
- You are the most important play
equipment
Through our work in Original Play our mission is:
- To substitute play for contest in
human relationships;
- To influence and change patterns of
interaction from aggression, anger and violence to kindness,
caring and affection.
- To prepare adults and adolescents
to function effectively as playmates for children.
- To educate individuals and the business community
through
workshops, training and courses on the importance of play.
- To create self-perpetuating
playmate programs in education, business, child-care and
health-care facilities.
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