As we head into summer, we want to remind parents and families of the benefits of PLAY for ALL – all children, but also all people – including parents and grandparents!
The National Institute for Play (NIFPlay) has shared the latest neuroscientific research on play with our Play Like a Champion community to help us understand that each person has a unique play nature - the types of activities that are playful or fun are different for each person.
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Jaak Panksepp, a prominent neuroscientist, identified seven foundational brain circuits that are primal emotions we are born with, like fear, care, panic and play. These primal emotions are with us at birth, pre-wired in our midbrain - an ancient part of the human brain. The instinct to play is built into our biology, the play circuits in our brains. For more information, see Dr. Panksepp’s TED talk on the 7 primal emotions.
The drive to play is as fundamental as our drives for food and sleep. Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of NIFPlay informs us that when the brain's play circuits are activated, they send signals from the midbrain to the cortex (the top of the brain) and the cerebellum (the bottom of the back of the brain). With repetition, these signals create neural pathways, "wiring" the brain. These play circuits create our play nature - the preferences we have for particular types of play such as movement play, object play, or social play. As we grow, those preferences expand, interact, and if not suppressed, lead to our play personality. Each of us has an inherent play nature that is as unique as our fingerprints.
The more that children are given the latitude to play freely - to act from their innate motivations - the more they will develop and reinforce neural circuits in other parts of their brain — circuits that become the neural pathways of many life skills. The more adults act from their play nature, the greater their overall well-being. Adults who do not regularly activate their play nature may experience their lives as tinged with depression, and may lack the optimism, adaptability and resiliency to perform well in their work and family lives.
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What Does This Mean for Society?
By the time children are in the classroom, many have been taught to suppress their innate play motivations. Schools reinforce this when they eliminate recess and the arts to make more time for academics. Dr. Brown discovered that lack of play for children increases the prevalence of:
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- Depression
- Inflexibility, poor adaptability to changing conditions
- Lack of empathy
- Poor impulse control
- Addictive predilections
- Mood-driven behavior, and sometimes violence
Fortunately, the awareness that play is linked to positive academic performance is making some policy headway. And fortunately, Play Like a Champion celebrates and emphasizes that in order for youth sports to support holistic development, they must have an intrinsically PLAYFUL nature.
So, this summer, LET'S ALL PLAY! Talk with your children to discover their play nature - and also observe what naturally engages them to ensure they are not just telling you what you want to hear. Remember to also consider your own play nature then take time to play together as a family at activities that engage all members.
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And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.
~ Zechariah 8:5
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There are Many Types of Play that are critical for optimal human development for children and adults. Adult play is often ‘lost’ or suppressed but can be re-ignited by recalling the kinds of activities you most enjoyed as a youth and pursuing them today. Here's more information on the types of play and why they matter!
Attunement Play
Beginning, usually at three or four months of age, when parent and infant gaze into each other’s eyes and engage in smiling, cooing, sing-song interchanges, both the child’s and parent’s brains are lighting up. They are experiencing a joyful union; the child’s brain creates the neural pathways that will be the foundation for trust and the grounding base for all future playfulness. Learn more about Attunement Play.
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Body and Movement Play
Throughout our lives, movement activates areas of the brain connected to learning, innovation, adaptability, and resilience. If you are having a hard time getting something done or getting into a play state, move: go for a walk or fold the laundry. As Bob Fagen says, “Movement fills an empty heart.”
Object Play
There is pleasure in the physical and movement aspects of object play — in putting together a puzzle, kicking a ball, or tossing a paper wad into a wastebasket. Early object play with the hands creates a brain that is better able to identify and solve system problems.
Imaginative Play
There are imaginative play adventures which contain both real and make-believe elements. The power of human imagination to create and innovate has built our modern world, and being playfully imaginative continues to nourish the spirit.
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Social Play
Humans are social animals, and play is the path to social competence. Social play lubricates social interactions and builds trust, which becomes the basis for developing relationships.
Rough and Tumble Play
Extensive research on rough-and-tumble play has consistently shown that it is a necessary and important foundation for developing cooperative socialization, a sense of fairness, and altruism. NIFP founder Dr. Stuart Brown and other researchers have shown that depriving youngsters of rough-and-tumble play hampers their ability to learn the normal give-and-take necessary for social mastery, and has been linked to poor control of violent impulses in later life.
Celebratory and Ritual Play
Ritual play is a more adult-oriented type of play. For children, celebratory or ritual play may involve a birthday celebration, a holiday dinner, or a religious observance. Children don’t initiate these events, but the ritual social experiences create a reservoir of good memories and help them develop a taste for ritual play as adults. Serious adult rituals often are accompanied by celebratory play, like the reception following a wedding ceremony.
Storytelling and Narrative Play
Our minds continually make up stories about why things are the way they are, and those stories form our understanding of the world. Stories are a way of putting disparate pieces of information into a unified context. As we grow, narrative stories tell us something about how things are and how things should be.
Parents, observe the types of play toward which your child is naturally motivated. Sports is, generally, going to be fun for kids who are motivated for Body & Movement play and Rough & Tumble play. There can also be a significant Social Play factor in sports, but a kid who has high motivation for Social Play and little motivation for Movement and Rough & Tumble Play will likely not find sports a lot of fun. We know that 70% of kids drop out of sports by age 13 because in many cases there is too much pressure in the sport environment and/or it is not a fun atmosphere. This research might also lead us to consider that some children are not wired to enjoy Movement Play or Rough and Tumble play. As parents we can look to our children’s true play nature to help them find their personal inner joy and fulfillment.
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Lord, give me the eyes to see you in my children, your heart to love them and your gentleness to help them grow. Give me your wisdom to guide them and your strength when I need to let them go. Amen. |
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Play Like a Champion's "Daily Prayers for Champions" page has been updated! Visit www.playlikeachampion.org/prayer for more than 200 prayers plus resources that can help you and your team grow closer to God while participating in sports.
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Play Like a Champion Today Educational Series
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