Science of Play 2023

SCIENCE ofPlay The

A treatise of articles by Dr. Stuart Brown, National Institute for Play

The

SCIENCE ofPlay

A treatise of articles by Dr.

Stuart Brown

National Institute for Play

As a like-minded play advocate, PlayCore is proud to partner with Dr. Brown on furthering the advancement of play and helping our world understand the critical importance of participating in play throughout life. Our work together thus far has touched all of the ways we help communities promote play, in exciting play research, several original play concepts that promote attunement, as well as contributions to our scholarly treatise “Words on Play.”

For the past year, Dr. Brown has served as our “Scholarly Writer in Residence,” contributing to PlayCore’s online blog, and helping our teams understand more about how play shapes us throughout life. For all of the play advocates

that have read Dr. Brown’s blog, then contacted us to hear “more of the story,” we offer this new treatise, with expanded versions of his blog posts, covering everything from why we play to how a lack of play can affect our quality of life.

We are honored to call Dr. Brown our partner and friend, and are amazed at his knowledge, passion for life and play, and his ability to see and interpret play through both scholarly and experiential lenses. Most of all, we are excited at this opportunity to promote a value we share — an immense passion for the value of play.

To read Dr. Brown’s blog, and listen to him explain more about play, go to www.playcore.com/drstuartbrown.

(Dr. Brown and granddaughters in his backyard treehouse.)

ABOUT DR. STUART BROWN

Trained in general and internal medicine, psychiatry, and clinical research, Dr. Stuart Brown enjoyed a playful childhood and the benefit of growing up in an era when children lived their lives, outside of school time, independently engaged in play with their peers. As an adult, he pioneered studies on the importance of play through research on homicidal young males, and felony drunk drivers, finding a startling common thread in their stories: serious lack of play in childhood. As his career progressed through roles as Asst Professor of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine, Fellow in Psychiatric Research at Harvard’s McLean Hospital, Chief of Psychiatry at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, and an Associate Professor at UCSD School of Medicine in San Diego, CA, Dr. Brown believed that play could be the key to discovering the full potential that is in everyone, but also that defining “play” would require more in-depth understanding of its essential nature. He was surprised that much of the play-related research he reviewed was fragmented and siloed. He also noted the absence of quantitative confirmation of clinical observations, not to mention a scientific and evidence-based way of understanding, and suggesting, how to improve play and give us all permission to play more.

Over his career, he documented thousands

of in-depth personal play profiles irrefutably demonstrating the negative emotional and multi-sensory consequences associated with a play-deprived life. In addition, this work also confirmed that the active presence of ongoing play is present in the accomplishments of the very successful. In 1989, upon leaving clinical medicine, he decided to pursue play in even greater depth. To gain insights, Dr. Brown turned to animal play research. Working with the National Geographic Society and Jane Goodall, he became acquainted with the premier animal play experts in the world, observed animal play in the wild, and began to understand play as a long-evolved behavior important for the wellbeing and survival of all animals. As a result of his extensive studies, Dr. Brown came to understand that humans are uniquely designed to enjoy and participate in play throughout life and launched the National Institute for Play to promote the integral role play has in human development and overall well-being. He has written and lectured about play in numerous public and scholarly forums, has directed and produced several documentaries and learning series about play and similar topics for CBS, PBS, and BBC, presented a Ted Talk on play, and written the book Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul.

WHY DO WE PLAY?

Why do people play? Because nature designed us to play.

Because we are built to enjoy its nature-assured benefits, which are manifold and often subtle in their manifestations.

Because nature built us to enjoy the obvious and subtle benefits of play. (And on close inspection we cannot be fully human and competent without it.)

And because it just happens to be fun!

Think of a world without play, no belly laughter, or joyful smiles and nonsense baby-talk between babies and mothers, no games, from hide and seek to chess, no lighthearted flirtation, no reason to carve out space for playgrounds, no wagging tail puppies who delight everyone — you get the picture, and then, when you get serious about it and look closely and systematically at lives deprived of play, the dire consequences of a lack of play become painfully evident.

But there really is more to “getting it” about play than that.

A new science of play has become evident from the explosion of information emerging from the social, psychological, behavioral, and biological sciences. For children and adults, play strengthens the mind and the body, straightening the path toward social competency, emotional stability, physical capability, and success.

Play has traditionally been considered applicable primarily to the young for their development of later useful skills, or a means of blowing off

excess energy; something separate from work that is always difficult to define and pin down, and not really considered a necessity for adults. It has not received broad research funding, and has thus been a late arrival now happily reinforced and better understood by science. If part of a scientific study, it has in the past been fragmented into serving or confirming a particular emphasis of the investigator. As such it has never before been fully seen or applied as a whole, which now is happening. The synthesis of new and historic information about play, which has recently developed, now takes us beyond the previous narrow limitations of how play has traditionally been regarded.

My interests in play have been honed in the following ways. By initially taking a sweeping look at play pathologies, such as bullying, painful isolation, adult hardened rigidities and more, I have been able to see what happens when it is missing in humans. Then, by looking for a broader context in which to place play and playfulness, I moved on to systematically observe animals

at play. From seeing its forms and purposes in animal life, and connecting these and other play discoveries with previous studies and practical experiences with human behavior, and reviewing the play of some 6000 varied individuals, a rich play tapestry has unfolded. Along the way, by examining special creative environments, and by linking play practitioners and play theorists, a newly emerging practical very broad cultural synthesis of play, (e.g., for kids, parents, coaches, teachers, playground designers, corporate innovators, etc.) becomes a natural and inevitable outcome from this lifetime review. As you read through this material, we hope you share the “aha” that comes from seeing play as vital, and strive to make play a priority in your life, and the lives you touch.

But Why Play?

Play is instinctive; suppressing the instinct to play is harmful. Playlessness makes children and adults more vulnerable to depression, anxiety, impulsivity and sedentarism. However, if we are safe, otherwise healthy, and well fed, it bubbles up spontaneously in its wide variety and highly individual patterns, from infancy to old age. It is often, sadly, suppressed.

Parents want the best for their children, of course. But keen parental anxiety over safety and success often leads to overprotectiveness and micromanagement. Parental anxiety is at the root of the mainstream pressure on parents to use parental time well for the “best” outcome for their children; this coming from loving and well-meaning motives, but often resulting in misdirected emphasis, creating the parents’ or caretakers’ need to orchestrate the behavior of the child for performance that they feel is necessary, or was necessary, for them in their life. This is often done without full awareness of

BENEFITS OF PLAY

Trust

Empathy

Optimism

Flexibility

Attunement

Problem solving

Joy in movement

Three-dimensional thinking

Perseverance, increased mastery

Emotional regulation and resiliency

Exploration of the possible — imagination

Openness to receive inspired “aha” moments

Cognitive growth, innovativeness and flexibility

Belonging — basis of community, cooperation and altruism

what that child spontaneously finds naturally gleeful. This can staunch the deep intrinsic motivation that drives the play instinct, grants the many benefits from play, and which otherwise would craft natural play patterns. And so, not understanding its centrality to sparking and achieving wholeness, its readiness to open the brain, body and spirit, its many benefits are missed (see list opposite). This list is not comprehensive, but it frames many direct and, for most of us, unsuspected payoffs from a play-adequate life.

We will elaborate on these elements in the remaining articles, but for starters consider the benefits TRUST and ATTUNEMENT. This begins early. The bonding between mother and infant combines parental love, and what emerges is the mutual joy from being nurtured and nurturing. This is hard-wired into the nervous systems of both, and the baby-talk and smiles that are exchanged are embedded in play-promoted trust that nature has established. In late adulthood, for example, seeing an old friend you have not seen for some time, who has been deeply trusted, evokes a surge of happiness from the encounter, showing that this benefit of play (you and the friend often played together) continues throughout your lifetime, waiting to be experienced again and again. The benefits of play are not short-lived, and there are many benefits and dividends of play.

Our heritage as humans is to play. We are built to play, and built by play.

ATTUNEMENT: IS THERE A BEGINNING MOMENT WHEN PLAY IS RECOGNIZABLE?

Play actually begins to have an effect on a child even before birth, at least indirectly. 2.

Unlike most mammals, humans spend threequarters of a year in the womb, emerging at birth as a virtually helpless “fetal” being. Yet even then, though totally dependent for survival on basic care, if seasoned newborn nursery nurses who have closely watched infants for years are correct, the precursors of play can, in many just born infants, show the vestiges of play. Those neonates who have had particularly difficult deliveries or are premature may not, in their first weeks of life reveal their emergent play natures. But for some, whether it is their gustatory enthusiasm, clear calming pleasure at being held closely, or hazy gaze at their mother’s breast, selective preferable pleasures can be observed by their natural responses- producing selectively calm (perhaps happy?) demeanor from a variety of stimuli. The point of this is to realize that our play natures are “there” at the beginning, and remain so throughout life, if we just look closely for their presences, or in our own lives “feel “ the intrinsic pleasures that play brings. These play natures are unique preferable patterns embedded by nature in all of us.

It is likely that these precursors of play are taking shape in the womb. During gestation, the embryo and developing fetus are subject to strong prenatal influences from the nutrition available via the placenta to the stress levels of the mother also transmitted to the rapidly growing fetus.

Neural circuits are already taking shape, circuits that will set brain patterns for the rest of our lives. An expectant mother’s play can lower her stress levels and help lessen the discomforts of pregnancy, but it is likely that her own playfulness can also help preform the mindset of the baby inside her. The effects of the prenatal environment can even be multi-generational as have been the findings related to the starvation and stress from the Nazi occupation of Holland, now referred to as the Dutch winter of 1944. Researchers have also shown that fetal movements—the kicking, punching, or writhing—can also be thought of as an expression of an intrinsic instinctive play behavior. These seemingly random motions are generated by the central nervous system as a way of making working connections between the limbs and the brain. Once the baby is born, these seemingly random play behaviors will help the infant to begin to explore the world. They are important fuel that helps self-organization.

But the clear emergence of the grounding base of play is obvious by three or four months of age, if a child is well fed and safe, and a mother’s emotional state is one of openness and calm. For then, when parent and child make eye contact this experience initiates a harmonic meeting of the minds. As they gaze into each other’s eyes, the baby will radiate an involuntary but compelling smile and the mother will automatically respond with a surge

of emotion and verbal and bodily joyfulness—and smile back. And the baby usually will make little sounds, a babble, or light gurgling laughter, and the mother will respond in a rhythmic singsong voicethe universal nonsense language of baby-talk. This is a phenomenon seen (if not culturally suppressed) across all cultures around the globe.

What’s going on in the brain is even more amazing. As they lock eyes, both the joyful and babytalking mother and the radiant-smiling infant are synchronizing the neural activity in the right cortex of each of their brains. If we wired mom and baby and took a multiple lead research-programmed electroencephalogram (EEG), the clear result is that their brain currents, their rhythmic brain waves, are actually in sync.

This is called “attunement.” Their brain rhythms are getting in tune, performing a kind of mind-union that is a very pure form of intimacy.

This is called “attunement.” Their brain rhythms are getting in tune, performing a kind of mind-union that is a very pure form of intimacy. And its emotional harmonic is — mutual joy. (PLAY!) Fathers, as do all of us making facial and eye contact with a newly smiling infant, have a similar response as will the baby. It is pure play. This experience is the most basic state of play, and it becomes a foundation for the much more complex states of play that we engage in throughout life.

Allan Schore, a UCLA researcher who has been a pioneer in integrating social, biological, and psychoanalytical theory, has discovered that attunement is critical and forms the foundations for later emotional self-regulation. Abused, neglected, or severely disabled children who never adequately experience this early, joyful, mutually trusting social experience end up being emotionally brittle and behave erratically. The implications of Schore’s research and its correlation with other related longterm research on human development are just now receiving the attention they deserve. For example, the child who does not experience attunement because of deprivation or abuse has later difficulty forming healthy attachments. This, of course has implications for later adult capacities, such as feeling a sense of “belonging,” and even has implications for competent stress management. Severe lack

of this most human of our parent-child unions, likely affects the efficient working of the emotional regulatory tasks that are generally believed to reside in the right (nondominant) prefrontal cortex.

The right and left prefrontal cortices lie in front of the motor centers, and are active in integrating cognitive and executive decision-making. The right side develops more rapidly than the left, is more vulnerable to early deprivational damage, and is essential for a balanced life. Schore has written convincingly, that good right cortex development is central to balancing optimum later emotional regulatory activities, risktaking decisions, and social judgments.

If we assume that the neurophysiological models of animal play apply to us, then attunement (the base state of play) buffers the growing infant and child against excessive surges of emotion. It also helps orchestrate the symphony of genetic signals that govern optimal brain development during childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Though this all may seem to be heavy science, I believe it is important for all of us, parents, grandparents and policy-makers to understand the integration of play into our lives, even at its beginning.

Tom Norquist, a Board member of the National Institute for Play, and PlayCore play innovator, upon learning of the power of attunement, designed and patented The Expression Swing®. It amplifies the essential playful attunement by its design, which has the child and the adult, while playfully swinging, having direct face-to-face and eye contact while stimulating motion induced positive brain activation in a climate of safe playfulness. Its appeal went viral on social media and is still escalating. This is proof of the power and contagion of our play natures getting a natural boost from a union of play science and careful design.

The joyfulness of play stays with us. A few weeks ago, I had the experience of seeing a once-close college friend who I

had not seen for 60, yes 60 years. Though we had intermittent contacts by mail, e-mail or phone conversations over the years, we had not actually been in each other’s presence since graduation. Tom L. is a mid-westerner who was visiting his California-based son in a city about 50 miles from my home, and we agreed to meet over lunch. We happened upon one-another in the restaurant parking lot, and I really don’t remember making pupil-to-pupil eye contact with him, but we each later confided that our reunion produced a huge eruption of surprising mutual joyfulness, that remains emotionally significant to this day. Attunement old guy style, but hard-wired. We had had a deep friendship whose rekindling activated our play natures.

Attunement works for all, whether with an infant, or one with whom a safe friendship exists.

HUMAN PLAY AND ANIMAL PLAY — WHY WE’RE MORE SIMILAR THAN YOU THINK

Have you ever wondered why a yarn-ball romp with your kitty, or tug of war with your dog is so contagious and fun or why it makes you feel so good?

I have had the fun of studying both animal and human play, and find that a deep understanding of the act of play itself is greatly enriched by a better knowledge of animal play and playfulness.

Yes, the more we study animal and our human play, the more frequently we discover there is no real gap between us. We share playfulness. We like to chase, rough and tumble, climb, play games, collect treasures — and so do many playful animals. And if we look closely, that continuity is obvious. Even art, culture, language, or tool use do not separate us from them. Yes, our rich language, fertile imagination, novel-writing, and symphony creation (and much more) are our marvelous heritage as humans, and on close examination flow from playful freedoms. But common patterns exist, and emotionally we find an uplifting union of play spirits when we observe or participate in animal play.

Both animals and humans start out life, if safe and well fed, with the world as our playground. And as “adult” human demands increase, we often lose sight of how much of the world is enhanced by keeping much of it as a playground instead of a proving ground or battleground. By seeing and enjoying animal play, and by knowing of some of the scientific objective findings from research on animal play, a much deeper understanding of

the necessity and benefits of play itself become more evident. Here, for example, is a basic aspect of play, learned from laboratory-controlled research on animal play.

Play, it has been discovered by animal play researchers, is hard-wired into the survival centers of the playful mammal brain. If an infant rat ( a very playful social mammal) has its cerebral cortex ( the “higher” center) of its brain removed surgically at birth, it survives, heals, and could be expected to be a very limited rat without its cerebrum as it develops. Surprisingly, at age 4 weeks, age appropriately, it makes squeaks that other rats can hear, which are specific “I want to play” signals, and begins to play vigorously, as if it possessed a normal fully endowed brain. In fact, graduate students watching groups of decorticated and normal rats playing together cannot identify the ones who are post-surgical. Both groups are full-on rough and tumble rat players. This shows from animal play-based research that the brain circuits that initiate and sustain vigorous early play are anatomically located in sub cortical (survival areas) of the brain.

So the urge to play is not a strictly learned behavior, flowing from “higher centers” but rather reflects a deep instinctive fundamental need, and our human subcortical brain is virtually identical with other playful mammals, even rats. Our play comes from deep centers, and nourishes higher centers as part of our essential biological design. Animal play studies have allowed this insight and many others that support the rat findings, to make “play science” a new and necessary discipline. As such, it allows a new landscape of science to better understand in how many ways play behavior enriches us humans, and can be shown to be absolutely necessary for animal development and well-being. Sure, both rats and humans need a full cerebral cortex to socialize and adapt to the complexities of adult rat or human living, but play and playfulness need to be honored not only in developmental infant and childhood eras, but for us humans throughout all of our life cycle. For us, the studies of animal play and its lack show that it is a necessity for not only animals, but also for us, to our overall well-being.

The roots of human behavior must be sought in changes over evolutionary time in comparison with other animals. It is unrealistic to think we can truly understand human play without understanding the play of dogs, monkeys, and turtles.

Gordon Burghardt, The Genesis of Play: Testing the Limits “ ”

If you are curious about some of the themes about play we can garner from watching animals at play, or specific descriptions in depth of animals at play, Robert Fagan’s 1981 Animal Play Behavior , Oxford University Press, is a fantastic resource, as is Gordon Burghardt’s The Genesis of Animal Play, Testing the Limits, ISBN 10: 0262524694 / ISBN 13: 9780262524698.

Through our ongoing studies of play, many concrete facts have emerged about the act of play:

It is voluntary, people want to play and do it of their own accord.

It appears purposeless – but really isn’t. While time at play doesn’t appear to fulfill any immediate life need (like eating or defending territory) it bestows many benefits long term.

• It can be interrupted (is not compulsively driven).

It is fun, pleasurable, and makes the player want to continue it.

It is engaging, and takes the player out of the sense of time.

• It really is a separate “state of being,” and most of us recognize when an animal is full of play, or when we ourselves are experiencing it.

It does not occur if the player is fearful, sick, or otherwise threatened.

All animals that play engage in body play. Movement alone can be joyous.

If you’re fortunate enough to be able to watch young chimps at play, you will notice much of their spontaneous play is bodily and solo. If the moving player adds a jump upward, with a wiggle while airborne, all the better. (If you are having a bad day, try cavorting, jump upward, wiggle in the air, and the “play state” it induces will have you feeling better.) Young children, unburdened by adult responsibilities play similarly. People and animals also share similar play types:

Object Play — We enjoy messing with “things.” From blocks and Play-Doh, to digging and gardening, object play feels good. The animals and playful birds toss objects using paws, beaks, and mouths and mess with playthings. Object play has been shown to enhance new brain connections in animal play research.

Social Play — Virtually all social players romp and engage in rough and tumble play as a warm up for other socially more complex species-specific play formats. Chase and escape, or chase me and I will chase you back is a common form of social play among a wide variety of social players. Even birds and monkeys in the wild, for example, exchange chase scenarios. What can be remarkable about cross-species animal social play, is the agreement via exchanges of play signals, that a predator-prey dangerous situation can become a playground if the play signals are exchanged and agreed upon. (Cheetah-gazelle, polar bear-sled dog, etc.) The implications of this phenomenon seen in nature has possibilities for the damping down of hostile aggression in human situations when mollified by mutual exchange of play signals.

So next time you’re engaged in play, you may be surprised to find that your behavior is very similar to that of animals!

NEOTENY — TO PLAY IS DEEPLY EMBEDDED IN OUR HUMAN BIOLOGICAL DESIGN

There are a variety of reasons why it is important to clearly foster improved health and more balanced living by recognizing the human capacity for and need to play throughout our lifetimes.

“Design thinking” is a buzz phrase that permeates much of highly innovative corporations and even educational institutions like Stanford University, where I enjoy teaching. But rarely do “design thinkers” apply their outreach to the essential design of their bodies or, psychologically, themselves. Yet when we look closely at the long history of our species, and listen to the paleoanthropologists as they provide evidence of

just how we humans, or scientifically classified homosapien species, arrived at our current state of design, one term, neoteny, explains much about what, over long time periods, our biological design has become. Our heritage prior to agriculture and city living is as hunter-gatherers, and the biological carry over from this lengthy heritage leaves us with the body that is our current physical and psychological home.

Upon looking closely, this design is evident anywhere humans live throughout this remarkable world. So, neoteny is the essence of our design. When we live in accord with this design, we get along better with ourselves and our fellow humans. When we do not, we pay a price in physical and emotional health that our obesity, depressive epidemics, and even our conflict dysfunctions reveal.

So what is Neoteny?

Basically, it is the biological design in the genes for staying “young” despite still getting old. And one of the hallmarks of this immaturity being retained despite becoming old, is our design for lifelong PLAY. To bring this concept home, let’s look at neoteny as it exists in another familiar species. Most of us are on good terms with various breeds of dogs, recognizing differences between a Cocker Spaniel and a Greyhound. And good science and genetics tells us that domestic dogs and their incredible variety of breeds all evolved from wolves. Some of the fundamental differences between a mature wolf, for example, and a mature Labrador or Golden Retriever may help us understand neoteny better. Wolf puppies and Lab and Golden puppies are almost identical in their behavior. They play constantly, and retrieve compulsively.

However, as the wolf matures, it loses its puppy ways, and no longer retrieves. It acquires naturefixed assigned roles within the pack, undergoes bodily changes, which we know as adult wolf characteristics. The adult wolf has a long nose, upright ears, and the wolf pack social structure allows only the alpha of the pack to reproduce; thus this adult wolf behavior is more fixed and hierarchical and very different than the behavioral qualities of the adult Lab or Golden. They, in

contrast, grow old with floppy ears, a short muzzle, but more to the point of this story, live to play and retrieve until they drop dead of old age. They are neotenous canines, and they exemplify in canine profiles the differences between a neotenous and non-neotenous species.

Now let’s look at the primate rather than the dog-wolf species. The great apes and humans are both primates. A chimpanzee has more than 95% of the same genes as humans. Looking more deeply at the behavior and the nervous systems of the adult chimpanzee vs. the human, we note much more fixed behavior in the chimps than in the very broad repertoire of behaviors available to the human. The chimp male fights for alpha status, and there is a pecking order to chimpanzee social life that influences female chimp behavior also. Though the males dominate the female chimps, nonetheless the female chimps also have a pecking order among the females, that Jane Goodall in her years of observation in the wilds of Gombe Stream in Africa documented. Though humans have great variety in their cultural habits, all of us have a very long childhood for play and learning, and the continued capacity to play from birth until our demise in old age. And as a by-product of this neotenous design as humans, we are more adaptable, curious, and are able to explore the many options in our lives that become possible as outgrowths of this design.

Being true to our long-acquired neotenous design, and not suppressing it is like getting good nutrition or a good nights’ sleep. Assuring adequate play, whether child or adult (and the patterns and amounts certainly differ) is a fundamental public health necessity. Each of us can assess whether we or our children are achieving this balance, which nature has, through much trial and error, provided as our optimal, neotenous design.

Spending time in playfulness keeps the balance for well-being alive and vital.

PLAY AND MOVEMENT, AND “KNOWING” THROUGH MOVEMENT

We really are embodied minds. And, of course what the good playground does is to design, build, and invite people to settings that foster play. And play involves movement. 5.

One of the outstanding Advisors to the National Institute for Play is movement pioneer, Dr. Maxine Sheets-Johnstone. Her groundbreaking book (among others) now being re-issued, The Primacy of Movement, describes in elegant detail how all of us gain basic knowledge of our bodies and our environments through movement.

Even prenatally, as any young mother will attest, there is plenty of movement in the womb. Once they are born, every infant demonstrates the urge to squirm and wave arms, and as soon as they can get up on their hands and knees at three to nine months they learn to rock and then crawl. They stick things in their mouths and gnaw with their gums. They roll food around with their tongues, sucking it in and spitting it out, enjoying the process immensely. All of this is movement inspired.

Later, with spoon in hand, they may catapult or fling a glob of food across the room. These are not random movements—they are intrinsic behaviors that promote exploration and learning. Babbling becomes intelligible words. Babies who are born hearing-impaired will actually use play movements to learn to communicate physically, first babbling with simple symmetric movements, which slowly become simple sign language when an adult signs back consistently. Movement is primal and accompanies all the

elements of play we are examining, even word or image movement in imaginative play. If you don’t understand and appreciate human movement, you won’t really feel this foundational continuing need for movement for your child. And by implication, the need for movement also includes your adult self, as the need to play throughout one’s lifetime is a persistent public health need. Play and movement are fundamental.

Learning about self-movement creates a structure for an individual’s knowledge of the world—it is a way of knowing. Through movement play, we think in motion. Movement structures our knowledge of the world, space, time, and our relationship to others. We’ve internalized movement, space, and time so completely that we need to take a step back (a movement metaphor) to realize how much we think in these terms. Our knowledge of the physical world, based in movement explains why we describe emotions with terms like close, distant, open, closed. We say we “grasp” ideas, or “wrestle” with them, or “stumble” upon them.

Movement play lights up the brain and fosters learning, innovation, flexibility, adaptability, and resilience. Knowledge of these grounding aspects of life will help direct parents and caretakers to apply what nature has provided for us as we play.

Human nature requires movement to be fully realized.

This is why, when either a child or adult is having a hard time getting into a play state, I have them do something that involves movement: because body play is universal. As Bear Play Researcher Bob Fagen says, “Movement fills an empty heart.”

The play-driven pleasures associated with exploratory body movements, rhythmic early speech (moving vocal cords), locomotor and rotational activity are done for their own sake; they are pleasurable and intrinsically playful, yet they also help sculpt the brain.

John Byers’ study of antelopes and other animals revealed that the periods of greatest play were also the time of most rapid growth of the area of the brain known as the cerebellum. If the antelope’s activity is inhibited during this period, the growth of nerve cells in the cerebellum is greatly reduced.

Movement fills an empty heart.

Bob Fagen, Bear Play Researcher “ ”

Why do play activities seem to go hand in hand with brain development? What difference does play make? The truth is that play seems to be one of the most advanced methods nature has invented to allow a complex brain to create itself. Why do I say this? Consider the fact that there is no exact blueprint for creating the brain. The information encoded in our DNA is far too sparse to determine exactly how all the neurons should connect up with each other. Instead, the brain wires itself up. It does this by creating far too many neurons, which in turn make far too many connections with other neurons throughout the brain. Following rules of interaction laid down in the DNA, the neurons send signals through the circuits, strengthening those that work and weakening or eliminating those that don’t. This process continues throughout life, and is a kind of neural evolution. After birth, most neurons are already in place, but they continue to make new connections. The fittest connections, the ones that work best, are the ones that survive. It’s survival of the fittest.

Play, which is more prevalent during the periods of most rapid brain development after birth (childhood), seems to continue the process of neural evolution, taking it even one step farther. Play also promotes the creation of new connections that didn’t exist before, new connections between neurons and between disparate brain centers. It is activated from and organizes what I call “divinely superfluous neurons.” These are neural connections that don’t seem to have an immediate function but when fired up by play are, in fact, essential to continued brain organization.

In playing, we foster the creation of those new circuits and test them by running signals through them. Because play is a “nonessential” activity, this testing is done safely when survival is not at stake. Play seems to be a driving force helping to sculpt how the brain continues to grow and develop.

Play continually wires our brains, training us to think in motion, increases cerebral capacity, and most importantly keeps life FUN!

EARLY PLAY PATTERNS AS A PREDICTOR OF LIFE AND PASSION

Let’s concentrate on the importance for all of us, regardless of age or life circumstances to be aware of our innate play nature, and allow it to keep blossoming from birth to our demise.

Our emphasis here will be from newborn to 9 months, with a projection of how this innate play nature might positively influence later life choices. It’s important to understand how play patterns emerge early, and their hallmark is spontaneous glee.

I was privileged with the auspices of the US Navy, to engage in family practice for a few years, and in that role, had the opportunity to have a very busy pediatric practice as well as the privilege of obstetrics responsibilities that meant delivering a few babies per month. As an ancillary part of this latter responsibility, I followed many newborns into the large newborn nursery at the San Diego Naval Hospital, where seasoned newborn nursery nurses were stationed. Observations I made over the years, with my then untrained eyes, were that these newborn infants initially seemed to be pooping, sleeping, crying, and occasionally alert little beings who certainly lacked much individual “personality,” with their

later maturation determining most individual quirks. With the tradition then of keeping the babies for 4 or 5 days in the nursery, time for observation, not now the norm, was extended. With their keenness of perception and love of these infants, the nurses had noticed individual quirks that they felt were predictive of these newborns’ intrinsic temperament or personality that would likely endure beyond the neonatal stage, and like good observers, they chatted with me about what their little charges might become. Sure, some of the more premature or those who had endured a long and difficult labor were less transparent and did not indicate obvious signs of individual quirks, or give many signals about who they later might become. But what lasted for me from these nurses’ observations is that innate patterns of engagement are there very early if we just observe them closely. Some of these newborns responded more to light and object movement despite their immature inability to focus clearly. Others responded more to touch and bodily movement. A few were more

engaged by sounds such as the soft music that was background noise in this particular nursery. All seemed to enjoy oral stimulation. So for me, these observations, though fascinating, were tucked away for years, until I began to research and observe emergent play patterns and frame the nature of play preferences as they revealed themselves individually over time. But this newborn nursery information from early in my medical career fits the emergent biologically innate patterns of play as they occur, and offer parents and the rest of us very useful and practical information that leads toward a more fulfilling future life, full of more fun.

Let’s follow a life from newborn onward, looking at engagement, gleefulness, and other aspects of personality that are indicative of unique individual preferences and patterns, and focus on specifics that are common to various stages of development. So, let’s imagine a little boy, who as a newborn seemed to respond more innately to objects and touching them, than say, visual stimuli. He is now 9 months old, and is surrounded by his smiling mom and a few highly colored toys. If by now he was more naturally attuned to social playfulness, he would have had more spontaneous glee as he returned his mother’s smile, than from grabbing and cavorting with a small but highly colored play car. But he is GLEEFUL as he touches the car. Thus, his preference and innately playful response is to objects: toys, blocks, etc. He still enjoys his mother’s smile, but more intense glee is spontaneously evoked from the play objects.

Now, segue imaginatively as this little infant grows to age 19. His parents, noting his glee as he manipulates objects, have provided him, as he develops, with many opportunities to make things on his own - choices, not imposing their preferences, but being sensitive to his. In so doing, they have amplified his innate talents. He has found perseverance and joyfulness and increasing skill and mastery, all fun for him in his inborn preferences for object playfulness. And through their awareness, from newborn onward he has been allowed to use his innate object preference and unique individual play personality to become part of his growing foundation on his individual road to becoming a skilled, (and more authentic) self. Now at 19, he has career and college choices, and it is clear to him that engineering — making things, solving problems — is his love. By encouraging his emergent, naturally occurring play personality, his parents have allowed him to hone his natural talents and combine them with the joyfulness that being in tune with his play personality allows.

The early awareness by parents of their infant or child’s play personality allows motivation and engagement in joyful living to be a natural part of growing up.

PLAY FOR SENIORS — A HEALTH MANDATE

Rediscover your playfulness if you have lost it. 7.

There is an increasing prevalence of depression in virtually all age groups, however the highest incidence of depression and suicide is seen in older age groups. No one, clear, causal process is evident. The focus of this article is on senior depression, or more to the point, senior lack of play as a major contributing factor in the genesis and perpetuation of depression.

It may seem strange to start an article focusing on depression and potential suicide. I do so, because the powerful mood-altering effect of authentic play can act as “immunization” against seemingly unending despair and, in particular late adult or senior depression.

The data on suicide and its increasing prevalence is solid, with a 25-35% recent increase in Western nations. Most vulnerable are those individuals over 65. My emphasis here is to focus on senior adult vulnerabilities to loneliness, the pervasive lack of community, and associated depression with its worst manifestation being suicide, and to demonstrate that multiple resources exist to ameliorate vulnerability. Play is certainly a major part of everyone’s human nature, and within each of us resides an active or dormant play nature, able and waiting to be more fully activated!

In previous articles, the biological design of our human species to play throughout each lifetime was addressed. Yes, we are designed to play, and designed by play throughout all of our lives. And yes, we are fundamentally a social species. Even if introverted, we need and are

sustained by others. Beginning with early infantmother mutually experienced joyful attunement (previously discussed) to a shared joke in a hospice setting, play is a source of enlivenment, it fuels life forces, even when circumstances are extremely challenging. And yes, we are hard wired to enjoy and need it forever.

So missing out on play at any age is an important risk factor for health and survival, play is a universal aspect of human nature meant to be honored throughout life. Therefore, accessing play experiences, particularly for depressed or lonely seniors requires awareness and prioritizing the many faces of play and finding ways to keep enjoying them is really a health necessity!

Make sure play is in the mix.

PlayCore, and its many avenues to assure healthy inclusive play is primed to provide seniors better access to play stimulating settings, playgrounds and play curricula that offer access to becoming playful again through multi-age and multicommunity access to more play experiences. As the awareness of the lifetime public health necessity of play becomes a cultural norm (it now has scientific backing) it is important to offer local leaders practical avenues to alleviate the common complaint of loneliness and depression among many seniors.

Let’s review the natural history that we all share, and why keeping play as a lifelong necessity is significant. Play no longer can be seen as trivial, for kids only, or what one does after all the

responsible tasks of life have been completed.

Yes, even if living alone, we all are members of a very social species. Our basic biological design (see previous neoteny article) and long heritage as hunter-gatherers required our continued meaningful participation in small, nomadic communities, with mutual sharing being a fundamental quality of life. At our social and physiologic baseline, this is at the core of who we are. So when a lack of meaningful participation

loneliness or its inevitable partner, depression. And if a spouse or best friend has recently passed away, the risk factors are not much different than high blood sugar, or when off-thecharts cholesterol levels are present. The United Kingdom, with its capacity for nationwide health assays, has identified loneliness as a sufficiently serious health problem with increased health care costs to have appointed a “Minister of Loneliness.”

Getting the older generation to understand and feel this enlightened play ethic in their bones is necessary, and a shared responsibility of those of us steeped in play science to keep alive!

in community exists, as is particularly common in US urban life, this lack evokes inevitable emotions of sadness, loss, and a need (usually unconsciously surrounding us, but deeply felt) for regular trusting contact with fellow humans, ideally of all ages. Now, add to this the general separation geographically and culturally from primary family members, and this aspect of support and emotional verve present for millions of years of our deep biologic heritage is missing. Visiting one’s children and grandchildren at Christmas, Easter, birthdays, marriages, or funerals, important as they are, does not produce sufficient emotional nutrition to stave off

Getting the older generation to understand and feel this enlightened play ethic in their bones is necessary, and a shared responsibility of those of us steeped in play science to keep alive!

So what are some practical ways of rediscovering, for a play-deprived senior, their essential play nature?

I am a physician, and early in my medical life as a family practitioner, I certainly was involved in many major untreated or chronic health issues for the aged, particularly in nursing homes that did not provide any access to play which was generally a very sad institutional norm then.

In later years, as play science became a focus of mine, I have seen, even in selected hospice settings, or in a dementia unit, where including play activities was established policy, major transformations occur. When the staff had discovered past fragments of play in the lives of their charges, they crafted treatment plans that duplicated some of the earlier play settings. Whether putting a golf ball, or singing an old “three blind mice” round, if it tickled a past play memory, it really generated and rekindled the spirits. In research settings in New South Wales, Australia, such inclusion of play and clowning with the staff has been demonstrated to lessen the need for medications, and along with it, staff morale has been radically improved. (Arts Health Study) .

So, let’s seek out the vulnerable, and add to Rx for non-demented, but identified and depressed and lonely seniors the many patterns of play that virtually every one of them once fully embraced. What did they love and enjoy spontaneously as kids?? Pets? Toys? Favorite song? (try happy birthday) Vacation sites? Name of best friend? Favorite aunt or uncle? You get the idea. A little searching and, bingo, one can usually find an unexpected spontaneous smile. Along with that, the hard-wired joyfulness that is an inherent, human play-based trait gets triggered. It is not an impossible task. If you are a caretaker or family member facing compassion exhaustion and are responsible for a senior who has lost life’s luster,

find out what they have once enjoyed but now is not present, and use your ingenuity to bring it back in narrative, family pictures, etc. If the name of a long-passed dog sparks a smile, get someone’s puppy to accompany a visit. The good

news is that there is a way to combat loneliness and sadness in older people, and the answer is one that we have given many times – we must find a way to bring, and keep, play in our daily lives.

The good news is that there is a way to combat loneliness and sadness in older people, and the answer is one that we have given many times –we must find a way to bring, and keep, play in our daily lives.

ROUGH AND TUMBLE PLAY — IS IT NECESSARY?

It used to be that self-organized play was all kids did. Most adults over the age of 45 will likely have memories of exploring on their own, through puddles and fields or on city streets, told only to be home before dinner or before dark.

The pickup games of my own youth were typical of those that spontaneously cropped up back then in vacant lots and parks across the country. They were anarchic, and didn’t always end well, but they had their own style and etiquette, were full of interruptions, reversals, flexibility, and rule changes. Despite the seeming anarchy, these games existed within an overall, agreedupon sense of structure and fairness. They were undertaken with an accepted, minimal risk of damage, and had safeguards. Although there was considerable mayhem and noise during the course of these games, I remember that they were exciting, and there wasn’t naked aggression.

These games certainly let me know who I was: Autumn-football season tackle in the Gunn’s vacant lot was my training ground. It was there I realized I was feisty, vulnerable, fairly fast and a shifty runner, but not as gutsy a tackler or as courageous a blocker as my older brother. I needed his protection and that of his friends to take on the challenge of the games, and they freely offered it. It was terribly important to get in the game, and belong. I remember feeling fierce. But it was OK to cry if you got hurt. Not OK to cheat or whine. Not OK to make fun of one of your own team members, but OK to ridicule someone on the other team. If team members changed in the middle of the game, OK to try and verbally humiliate the former teammate then.

After these games we discussed the big plays,

the great plays, the incredibly lucky plays. We had our own verbal highlights reels, letting kids shine for a few moments in the spotlight for their abilities. We also let the screw-ups know in clear language their deficiencies.

I can attest that these child-organized, childdominated experiences have had major effects on not only my own capacities and perceptions as an adult, and how I grew to see myself, but did so also for all the other boys who were involved in this game. Dougie Weaver was a star, and became a big ten half back, and later a major coach. The other star, Linnie Keith faded athletically as he started high school, but his academic interests, and tinkering nature led him into dentistry. Jimmy Lacey, unathletic and overweight was assigned referee status. He became a lawyer. Looking back now, with the retrospective eyes of a trained psychiatrist, these play-inspired portraits of others and myself feel more real, persistent and predictive of life to come than any other molding experience. Certainly, parents and mentors are pivotal, but the self that emerges through play is the core authentic self. My systematic studies of the play deprived and the research of others confirm that these kid-organized games and other rough and tumble play experiences have significant positive long-term outcomes.

Alas, these kinds of activities are becoming rarer. Most suburban kids now are ferried from music lesson to math tutor to soccer game. Every

activity is organized and overseen by adults. This is not all bad. I think that in many ways the relationship between kids and adults, kids and their parents, is much closer than in my day. But something very significant has also been lost.

My last trip to suburban Chicago and the old neighborhood revealed no empty lots, no pick-up games, a lot of adult-supervised youth sports, busy kids and parents, many more and

much nicer cars, less street noise, clearer air, mixed ethnic groups in sidewalk restaurants, and multiple families living in the big Victorian houses. Not the same world. Talk to a kid on the street, (when one can be found-they are usually leaping from one car to the next adventure) and they are generally more hip, glib, are inevitably texting and on cell phones, and more comfortable with adults and authority than I remember any of my gang of buddies.

Though life and lifestyles evolve with the times, something innately important has been lost. The child-led rough and tumble play of my youth provided an outlet to learn valuable life lessons, independent of adult intervention. These lessons become a part of who we are, teach us negotiation and conflict resolution, and provide a setting and experience that cannot be equaled.

CONSEQUENCES OF A PLAY DEPRIVED LIFE

In 1966, I was a young academic psychiatrist, a research-oriented clinician about to be involved in a life changing experience as a Commission member evaluating the mass murders committed in Austin by the Texas Tower Sniper. 9.

My initial awarenesss of the potential significance of play deprivation began under violent and tragic circumstances. In August of 1966, Charles Whitman, a 25 year old ex marine, former Eagle Scout and an architectural engineering student at the University of Texas, without a criminal record or the awareness that he was potentially violent, killed his wife and mother, and the following day ascended the University of Texas Tower, and by extremely accurate sniper fire, killed 12 more innocent victims, and wounded 32 until he was himself killed by two courageous men who braved his onslaught and were able to end what was then the worst mass murder in US history.

Along with others from a wide variety of disciplines I was appointed to a Commission that Governor John Connally of Texas organized to provide answers to “what drove this young non-criminal man to terrorize the otherwise serene campus?” For some 20 weeks a diverse and distinguished group from many disciplines intensely reviewed as many resources of information, including exhaustive analyses of his biological givens and cultural heritage, recent triggering events, and a highly detailed series of interviews with those who had known him and his extended family over the years. Whitman had also provided detailed diaries over the past 4-5 years which revealed some of his inner hidden torment. We had a huge amount of information,

and strong evidence of continuing rage and depression that had characterized his inner life, while externally he had been able to mask this by a skillful mimicry of what he considered normal behavior.

As this investigation gained momentum, a sage child psychiatrist appointed to the Commission, Robert Stubblefield, stated repeatedly “What if at this portion of his life he had just been allowed to play?” We noted that his overbearing father and submissive and frequently abused mother essentially suppressed any free and normal play behavior that was sustained until he left home after high school to join the Marines. Of the many play reviews I have conducted over the many years since the Tower Tragedy, Whitman’s suppressed play behavior by an incredibly overbearing and disturbed father is the most oppressive of any I have investigated.

The Commission’s conclusions included in their collective judgment that the almost complete suppression of normal play behavior and the toxic and often violent home background as well as his familiarity with firearms, and certain humiliating ongoing circumstances meant that he could no longer contain a volcanic chronic inner rage that he otherwise might well have contained, or at least with healthy play or with his development of other coping strategies that might have, if adapted, alleviated his final lethal acts.

9. CONSEQUENCES OF A PLAY DEPRIVED LIFE

But Whitman then seemed to me as a researcher as a once in a lifetime rare aberration. He was a bright, troubled, highly-stressed individual with unique background triggers. That is, his history seemed unique until I had spent the better part of a year interviewing homicidal males in the Texas Huntsville Prison, and compared their overall histories with a matched comparison population. What leapt out of the information we were accumulating was that both Whitman and the homicidal males had NOT engaged in normal rough and tumble play. No memories of playground buddies. No involvement in games of chase and escape. Lots of aggression or isolation. Whereas the comparison group had almost 100% recall of exuberant childhood “free play” times with neighborhood or schoolyard friends with positive remembrances of the names of playmates; who was the fastest, who was the most cagey, etc.

So at the end of this year of research, the contrast between the homicidal males and their families, and the large comparison group and their families was stark. This was then and still is now a revelation that has stood the test of time. This was 1967, so since then a great deal of play-related research has been conducted, and provides a

broader context to the significance of rough and tumble play. Objective studies of animal play, and many anecdotal reviews of play-deprived humans as well as the positive evidences of the benefits of rough and tumble play demonstrate its importance. The process of such play is essentially organized by the players themselves. It allows intrinsic motivation and playful action to be combined.

Most highly social mammals, in their developmental youth, engage in rough and tumble play, or “play-fighting.” They chase, wrestle, exuberantly play-bite and generally whoop it up with others of their troop, pride, or tribe. This is a pattern of play seen not only in them, but also in us. It is a natural part of social mammal development. Of course, our species is different and the vestiges of rough and tumble play extend beyond the exuberance of free play in childhood. But, it seems both our animal pals and us need it to become competent within our own species.

However, in humans, the capacity to fully engage in rough and tumble play requires a social learning curve that requires progressive learning. It generally begins with parallel play between

early preschoolers which is not particularly intense, to gradually more risk taking, chase and escape games, to the heckling and other social verbal rough and tumble patterns with very complex social learning progressively happening as physical play naturally tends to diminish. The social learning of complex interchanges, the development of empathy, tolerance of differences, and the feelings of “belonging” are largely learned though kid-organized rough and tumble play. Whitman and the homicidal males did not have the full opportunity to experience this important developmental norm in their lives. And according to many play researchers, this natural and significant pattern of social learning through the trial-and-error of rough and tumble play is suppressed by many wellmeaning parents and caretakers, particularly in preschool settings as it is seen (falsely) as chaos, inappropriate aggression, or disorderly anarchy. Thus its value and essential nature are missed. Of course, missing this pattern of play is significant, but other factors make violent outbursts more likely.

Rough and tumble players stay friends. Rough and tumble animal players show lessened stress hormone secretion despite vigorous

physical activity. So when PlayCore establishes settings which foster kid-organized rough and tumble play, they are positively influencing the competency of participants for later “belonging” to one’s own community and greater adaptability in a variety of social settings. This learning process was missed in Whitman and the young murderers in our 1966-67 study.

What has been particularly jarring to me as a play scholar in the many years since Whitman and the pilot study of young murderers are the objective studies where highly playful social animals in controlled laboratory settings are prevented from engaging in what for them is normal rough and tumble play. (and R&T play is a normally expected developmental pattern for them.) When this happens, the play-deprived animals cannot form normal social relationships with their peers. They can’t discriminate friend from foe, do not bond socially to mate, and exhibit many other deficiencies, including less rich connectedness in their brains. While Whitman and the murderers were not lab animals, the parallelism between their play deficiencies, and the objective problems in forming trusting social bonds with others seems very significant and parallel.

All the more so as we understand more fully the neuroscience of play behaviors, and see clearly that we share some fundamental brain wiring that prompts essential play patterns with us and our animal cousins. Rough and tumble play is instinctive, unless we suppress it.

ENJOYING A FULFILLING LIFE BY RETAINING OUR ABILITY AND RIGHT TO PLAY

Why do we feel that play is not necessary, or optional as we grow up? What happens to adults that causes us to leave play behind and dismiss the fact that all its benefits continue for life?

In previous articles, we have viewed play from many angles. Why do we play, how do animals play, how are we humans designed to play, what are some of its benefits, how does its presence show us what our most natural talents are, what are some patterns of play, such as rough and tumble romping in early childhood, what are some consequences when we don’t play, etc, but we have not examined the common feeling that most adults have, namely that it is really optional for us grown-ups, fine for kids, and OK for vacation-time or weekends or for a golf or ball game. Somehow the freedom and joy of play that we experienced on an hourly or daily basis, an essential element of life for us as we were kids, is now missing in our daily responsible adult life. And we lament that loss, but usually do not question our need for it throughout our lives.

My observations of adults who embrace fully their inherent play nature are that it assures the fulfilled player a better quality of life, decreases stress, connects them better with their particular communities, keeps them optimistic in a very changing, challenging, and demanding world, fosters empathy, and thus makes sense to include for us all. And in consulting with corporate researchers, it is an inexorable component in the “joy of discovery,”

As a physician, I have come to see it from many years of exploring it scientifically that play is a public health necessity from birth to death. But sadly, for the majority of adults, even if they revel in the play they enjoy, this sense of its loss as compared to when they were kids is pervasive, with the feeling that something about being an adult requires this nostalgia for lost childhood free play to remain nostalgic, and not a hallmark of adulthood. This mainstream attitude rests on a belief that is false and not in accord with the play science that has emerged with the information age.

Perhaps a second look at our “neotenous” natures will remind us that we are designed by nature with a species-specific, ingrained, embedded instinct to play all of our lives. Our lifelong brain plasticity is primed by playfulness. Yes, the preferred patterns of play change as we pass through the various stages of our lifecycle, but getting fully engaged from within our own intrinsically motivated selves is what play provides, and the benefits for individual health, and even the continuing presence of social cohesion so necessary for the survival of democracy, requires the presence of playfulness.

A systematic look at our evolutionary heritage shows us that being hunter-gatherers for many survival based eons, harsh circumstances notwithstanding, required our forbearers to include play throughout their lives. And the current science that looks at our DNA and compares it with our animal cousins who lose their play as their instinct demands, demonstrates that it stuck around in our genes (and epigenes) beyond its shaping effects so obvious in our long playful childhoods. So the statement, “ we are built to play and built by play” holds for our lifetimes.

So what will allow you as an adult to reclaim the essence of play? What gives you now the pure release that authentic play offers? What is it now that engages you so completely that you are no longer conscious of time or oblivious to performance outcome? Can you rediscover the spontaneous passion that we all are capable of experiencing?

We each have our own “play personalities.” Yours may have been suppressed by mainstream (puritanical) cultural pressures or other life processes. If so, this loss doesn’t mean your passion is gone or that you can’t once again experience full engagement. Most of us, with a little prompting, can find the trigger for the spontaneous play we enjoyed in childhood. Was it hearing a rhythmic musical riff that got you dancing? Perhaps it was the exuberance of your first bike ride without training wheels? Perhaps

it was a ball game with your dad? Whatever the memory, if through the recall of those moments of playful emotional bliss you rediscover your inner capacity for engagement, you are on the right track for discovering the innate path to your particular favored play choice. Embedded in our nature is this capacity to lighten up our adult lives. Play often begins with a sense of nonsense, which is somehow dismissed in our adult culture as foolishness. But if you listen to the purity of children at play, you’ll notice their play is often launched with a little humor and nonsense. If you can get over feeling silly, and realize its ok to be nonsensical, you are on the way to experiencing the lightness of being we all need. We are built to play, and built by play-for all of our lives.

So now I am an old man in his 80’s, and I play differently than when I was 10. But when two dogs on the local Carmel, California, beach begin a raucous romp and include me in their compelling play signaling, it somehow miraculously forces me to gleefully join in. I get caught up into it, and when I regain my wind, up comes that remembered state of chasing my friends on the playground in elementary school recess, and for a few ecstatic moments I am “lost” in this natureinstilled state of play. And as I muse about this encounter, I vividly and emotionally also recall being completely engaged when I was 10 on the sandy shores of a summer-drenched lake Michigan, and I reclaim in old age what has been mine all along. They chase me and I chase them.

The play nature that is mine and part of being human gets kindled, and its payoffs are bounteous, as they are for all of us.

PLAY AND THE BRAIN

The most complex entity in the known universe is the human brain.

In my long lifetime, it has been a privilege to view the immense flood of information on the human brain, so that we now know a great deal about it, from the physiology of individual neurons and their connections (we each have trillions of connections,) to patterns that underlie human behavior.

To gain better understanding of just how the brain works, the majority of play researchers have focused on an individual brain cell and how it acts, or have looked at millions of cells operating in harmony to produce behavior. We are still a long way from understanding human consciousness, or plumbing the depths of major mental illnesses like schizophrenia, so stay tuned as more and more research brings clarity. Despite the unknowns that still exist, nonetheless, we are on the threshold of much greater and practical understanding, and PLAY can now be seen in perspectives that increase its overall importance in the scheme of things.

Back in the late 60’s, as a young researchoriented psychiatrist, when I learned that severe play deprivation had major negative behavioral consequences (in particular, its absence led to predilections to violence and lack of social empathy) I got curious about the whole subject of play and the brain. Following is a condensed version, with help from many sources, that I hope

will increase your understanding of its magnitude, yet let you know that we are just on the threshold of discovering its lifelong importance to our wellbeing.

If you have read the book, Play, How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, you will know that I had a wonderfully playful Labrador Retriever, Jason (of the golden fleece!) Well, being interested in just how strong his play impulses were, I decided to test them. Jason loved to be taken out for a run, usually on leash until an open field was reached. So whenever the leash was evident, he excitedly responded. He also loved to eat, and while famished in the morning, he usually relished good dog food first thing before his outdoor romp. I decided to test which was stronger, the urge to eat or the desire to go for a playful run? So concurrently, I set out a luscious bowl of his favorite food, and held up his leash. He inevitably chose the leash and the outdoor adventure over scarfing up his food. Hmm. It seemed the play urge was stronger that the hunger urge. A big surprise at the time.

Since then, I have found through the meticulous research of others, that the circuits in the playful mammal brain that respond to play triggers (the leash) and the hunger circuits both are located in the deep survival centers of the brain.

And these animal play researchers have found that when a potentially playful animal is offered the choice between play and eating, or play and resting, etc. and other choices, that the urge to play is right up there with other very important survival instincts. Hmm again.

Now if kids who usually are given free rein to cavort in playgrounds are one day allowed no restraint on their usual play, but the next day are restricted from it, and on the third day given no restrictions, on that day their play will be more intense and extended than if it had not been restricted. Hmm again. This “physiologic rebound phenomenon” is also seen if sleep is restricted and then allowed. From the brain’s point of view, both play and sleep are experienced as “physiologic necessities” just as something as basic as, for example, drinking to slake thirst. Considering play from this perspective, it is a NECESSITY.

I could go on with other examples from the objective studies of animal play research showing just how the brain reacts to play, but I will give you one. Rats are very playful. At 4 weeks of age, both genders are full of cavorting rough and tumble play. This activity dominates their juvenile development until about 15 weeks of age, when play naturally trails off in the service of rat reproductive preoccupations. (sound familiar?) Now if a rat play researcher prevents the normal rough and tumble play from occurring, but then allows the mature non-player to rejoin the rat pack, what is the result? Well,

the non-players can’t tell friend from foe, can’t mate normally, over-respond to stress, and upon microscopic examination of their brains reveal smaller brains, with fewer connections. And there is much beyond this research on rat play in other playful species to substantiate the centrality of healthy play for the full development of executive (prefrontal cortex) brain development, plus solid findings that many cortical genes are selectively activated by play itself. While this is objective animal play research, not ethically allowed on humans, the obvious parallelism to our human condition seems evident.

Severe play deprivation in humans, (wartime, child abuse, isolation, etc.) shows a similarity to the controlled laboratory anti-play observations.

My interviews of highly playful Nobel Laureates and other deeply engaged fulfilled and playful adults, as well as many reviews of play starved adults who have “lost” their play upholds the stark findings of the animal researchers, as well as the positive results from developmentally healthy play.

PlayCore, with its broad emphasis on play for people with disabilities, multigenerational play, and the design of settings that trigger our innate human capacity for, and need to, play, is in harmony with this basic brain science of play itself. Play fosters new brain connections no matter what your age or status, so to benefit across a number of important brain factors, we simply must keep playing! 11.

Play fosters new brain connections no matter what your age or status, so to benefit across a number of important brain factors, we simply must keep playing!

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT: THE SCIENCE OF PLAY RESEARCH

The explosion of shared information that our current neuroscience community is flowing into internet based resources and contemporary university libraries is beginning to deepen and alter the brain science view of play behavior in exciting new perspectives.

Because play science is not yet generally regarded as a separate discipline worthy of major funding, the information that supports play science and its positive effects on brain development and functioning must be culled

“

Here is a sampling of what play does for the player, with reference to its effect on the brain.

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from many points on the scientific compass. By doing so, here is a sampling of what play does for player, with reference to its effect on the brain.

The architect of the brains of highly playful mammals is similar in its design, neurotransmitters, hormonal adjustments, and much more, allowing

patterns of play common to all to be objectified as reflective of fundamental brain activities. In the case of highly playful animals, it can be observed and manipulated in laboratory settings. Animal play researchers have discovered that the origins of play behavior rise from the deepest survival centers of mammal brainstem and limbic systems, in ways, for example, very similar to the deeply necessary survival impulses that foster sleep and dreams and fundamental caretaking. Because of our animal cousins, it is reasonable to assume that our species duplicates many of these objective findings from the animal play world.

In short, the many benefits that play produces are best clarified when play behaviors are missed, as can be produced in laboratories, and duplicated by tragic human circumstances such as prolonged hunger, warfare and natural disasters, social abuse, and more. When these deprivations are collectively analyzed in both the play-deprived mammal and play-deprived humans, an array of deficiencies that reflect brain functions directly of these are the ability to manage stress, the ability to achieve social norms necessary for complex socially acceptable living (such as good emotional regulation, handling of aggression and more).

As the technical mastery of brain imaging is becoming more sophisticated, these techniques are allowing more precise visualization of play related circuitry. These findings, along with the expanding capacity to assay and localize play-

released “brain fertilizers” (such as BDNF, IGF-1, endocannabinoids, dopamine, etc.) are bringing the immensely complex landscapes of behavior into clearer view.

So as play behavior can be separated from others, become better defined in its evolution and physiology, the neuroscience community will more fully recognize its centrality to full-fledged brain development and healthy maintenance. This perception is imminently on the neuroscience horizon. It is an exciting time for the emerging discipline of play science.

THE SCIENCE OF PLAY: HOW PLAY HELPS US DEVELOP RESILIENCE

Resilience, or the ability to manage stress and adversity, and the capacity of keeping our equanimity in the face of challenges, is a quality we all aspire to enjoy and possess, because it is inevitable that life will produce stress-inducing demands and unexpected difficult elements.

Rarely if ever is play considered a prerequisite or even a component of the ingredients we usually associate with the indoctrination of resilience, or is it generally appreciated in its contributions for how we manage stress, or how we face and master adversity.

But in our long transition over the ages, well documented by paleo-anthropologists, from nomadic hunter-gatherers to our world-wide primate human status now, surrounded as we are with technologic marvels and urban lifestyles; nonetheless, we can now place play in deep, deep context, and see it as it is, an ingrained part of all of us, and a necessity for overall human competency. And play has survived for good reasons.

Add to this valid historic perspective, the comparison of our brain design to those of our playful animal cousins, fresh insights and increased appreciation for play emerges. We are just now beginning to appreciate its importance.

As research psychologist Steve Siviy has written in Vol. #2 of the American Journal of Play,

“Yet various species have survived through countless episodes of adversity, and they did so partly because they developed arsenals of

coping mechanisms. We presume that play as a phenotype has been through the rigors of natural selection and has afforded some advantage— or at the very least, has not been a significant disadvantage—to species that play. [and we are the most playful of all known species.] Indeed, play may have emerged as a stable behavior pattern across a variety of species over the course of evolution, but one that truly took hold in the mammalian brain. where, play seems to be largely a subcortical event. …, which points to a brain systemthat probably appeared fairly early in the course of mammalian evolution. As prevalent as play proves to be, it does not occur in a vacuum. For the young of many species, the journey from birth to adulthood can be filled with peril and considerable danger. Because play evolved amid these dangers, we need to understand its interaction with them in order to understand the evolution of mammalian playfulness.”

The objective studies that animal play in controlled settings has produced, (as it would not be ethical to conduct such research on humans) show that play-deprived animals cannot cope with the normal demands of belonging to a speciesspecific social group, nor do they handle stress adequately. On the other hand, play-filled animals

deal with stress much better, show rapid recovery from stressful encounters, (animal resilience) and also demonstrate superior coping when presented with unexpected challenges. It is my view that human play, though we cannot objectify it through controlled studies, has parallel contributions to those seen in animal play research. The use of this information as it becomes more complete will provide data and be convincing to bring about broad policy changes that appreciate and implement play.

Human play has parallel contributions to those seen in animal play research.

need for adult and senior play, play throughout our lifetimes remains profoundly important.

So it seems important for us to know…Does play by itself have the potential for easing stress? Some evidence in the literature about human play says it does. My work with at risk violent offenders reinforces this conclusion.

This animal play research makes it clear that play, in its many manifestations, serves a wide variety of survival-promotion functions pertaining tostress management, overall competency, as well as learning, emotional regulation, innovation, and social cooperation. This understanding of the nature and importance of play, is especially vital in today’s world, because of the ever-increasing restrictions our culture places on children’s play. As children spend more time in school and at other adult-directed activities and are prevented from play, ostensibly for safety reasons, or because of parental anxiety about school performance, college prep, etc. they are thus limited from playing in the free, self-directed, and sometimes risky ways that always characterized children’s play in the past. There is good reason to believe that such restrictions are deleterious to children’s physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development. Though not emphasized here, the

An early study that looked at preschool children found that those children distressed on the first day of school who were allowed to play became less anxious afterwards than distressed children to whom someone simply read a story. Interestingly, this lessening of distress became apparent only in those children who displayed high levels of baseline anxiety to begin with, and it was most evident in children who were allowed to play alone. In general, the evidence suggests that free play reduces anxiety and lessens stress in children. Consider, for example, play studied in children being treated for leukemia compared to the control group of the same age in a daycare center. While those with leukemia played less overall than the control group, an interesting pattern emerged among them. As anxiety levels increased in the kids with leukemia and they felt more stressed, they engaged more frequently in solitary play than parallel or group play, and their play became more repetitive.

Stress and play are clearly not compatible, with fear and stress suppressing play. Yet, stress occurs frequently in the lives of all of us, children and adults. And clinical observations reinforce that play can be a source of resilience even in the face of serious adversity. Animals stop playing when a threat appears in their environment, which indicates that the mammalian brain as it evolved saw an adaptive advantage in ceasing to play. But, once the immediate threat is over, play can start again, suggesting that the mammalian and thus our human brain as they both evolved saw no adaptive advantage in allowing feelings of fear and anxiety to linger.

PlayCore, by providing a well-designed supportive settings, along with encouraging communities to better understand play itself, can provide the type of effective projects that encourage a more rapid long-term ability to sustain resiliency, better manage stress, increase overall competency, and recover from adversity.

PLAY AND NATURE

As far back as 500 BCE Cyrus the Great built elaborate Persian gardens for relaxation. Paracelsus, a pioneering physician of the 16th century wrote, “The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician.” The great landscape architect Frederick Olmsted wrote, “the occasional contemplation of natural scenes… is favorable to the health and vigor…and especially to the health and vigor of the intellect.”

There is broad ranging and growing amounts of scientific data strongly indicating that human and social health improves in nature environments. Specific examples include research showing that a 15-minute walk in the woods reduces stress and induces more optimistic perspectives. Post-operative recovery times are reduced with images of trees and flowers in hospital rooms and, similarly, that the toll depression and obesity are increasingly taking on urban dwellers is mitigated by the availability of parks and green spaces.

The benefits of being in and near nature are no longer intuitive alone; the data now exists to prove that life is better and disease and even mortality indices are reduced as nature is more a part of our lives.

Disconnection from nature is the new normal e.g., greatly diminished amounts of time kids and adults are outdoors – driven by long work hours, the attraction of screen time and more. Scientific research is showing that this “indoor imprisonment” causes mental health and stressrelated illnesses. Being embedded in nature – which is our heritage, lowers stress, improves physiology and reduces predilections toward mental and physical health problems. Though stated here in general terms, they can all be reinforced with exhaustive research data.

As regular readers of this blog know, the science of play informs us that play is a fundamental process of virtually all mobile life forms and their play patterns vary from simple to complex in direct proportion to the complexity of the species.

Looking at play patterns across species, scientists have learned that these simple to complex behaviors all are initiated from prewired places deep in the earliest crafted parts of

the brain, parts that are similar across all species. There is a lot yet to be learned about play, but. the research that we know of today shows that is is as pervasive

as pervasive and as central to well-being as sleeping-dreaming is for animals and humans alike.

Innately motivated, pleasurable actions - play or playful behavior – will, even in the short time of the playful engagement, increase one’s sense of optimism, foster fresh perspectives, lower stress, and at times foster imaginative reveries. Play behavior repeated regularly over time enhances

empathy, curiosity, and stabilizes our emotional moods. Similarly, while the importance of being close to nature and being playful has been intuitively right for many, neither were, historically, greatly appreciated by mainstream culture. Today we have an extensive amount of quantitative, evidence-based information supporting the import of both nature and play.

It’s time to consider integrating more of these two beneficial phenomena into our lives – I believe we will learn that combining play and nature yields much more benefit than the sum of their individual benefits.

IMAGINATIVE AND PRETEND PLAY: OBSERVING THE NATURAL DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATIVE AND PRETEND PLAY IN INFANCY

The way a safe and well-fed infant matures and spontaneously begins to play is affirmation of its nature as being an integral part of our human design to play in various ways.

Here is an example (courtesy of Liz Memel/ Resources for Infant Educarers) of enactment by a young child of his imaginative preverbal contemplation to being triggered into playful deliberate action by the presence of a playground slide, leading to his subsequent deliberate mastery of the slide as his “play state” took over.

As best we can tell from his future actions, he is first imagining himself playfully involved. As we know, climbing is a play move that is deeply rooted in all of our DNA.

My toddler, (A) went all the way over (up one side and down the other) of that triangular climber today. He had never done it before, though he’d

consider it many times. I’ve been watching for months as he would cautiously climb the ladder, attempt to go all the way to the top, then step back down the way he came. Today he climbed up once and decided to back down. Then, a few minutes later, he came back to it and went up and over - cautiously, but confidently. Internally, I was throwing a fit - “You did it!” I thought, “Great job, amazing, awesome! You finally did it!” Outwardly, of course, I gave no reaction. And A.? He didn’t even look at me. He was doing it for himself, not for me. Didn’t even care if I was watching or saw. It was no big deal to him - he just climbed up and over. Then, even better, he did it again, and again. Mastery. And at no point did he look to me for validation or praise. It was his success, on his terms in his time and he owns that! I love it.

It is reasonable to speculate that A’s appraisal of the slide, its presence triggered his primateplay climbing instincts, so...he first imagined climbing, and then did it. His preverbal playful imagination was required first, with no extrinsic motivation provided by his mother! This dynamic spontaneously occurs repeatedly as the many play-evoking triggers are bountifully provided by a play -nourishing environment. Though this is a simple example, it provides a base for better understanding of playful imagination as more complex circumstances offer more diverse imaginative reveries.

As is evident from this early play view, as verbal language and social development proceed, the playful imagination that is waiting by nature’s design to be activated get propelled and elaborated by virtually any object or social situation. A banana becomes a cell phone, and wake me up imaginative phone conversations. A

cardboard box is a fort and we craft make-believe narratives to animate it. Costumes from blankets allow imagined characters to become mentally alive. Thus, given the safety and freedom to master the growing sense of how we and the world interact, imagination is a pivotal aspect of developing an authentic sense of self. We try on various identities.

The world is, during childhood, a mix of pretendreal narratives-encounters with pets, caterpillars, songbirds, and the amazing options for immersion in the natural world evoke fantasies and imaginary reveries. The socio-dramatic interactions that animate playgrounds, and reverberate in recess and other circumstances of freely interactive kids at play can provide. When this childhood pretend-real narrative is scripted by adults or is co-opted by pre-programmed toys or is absent because of excessive screen content, the contribution that spontaneous imaginative reveries would otherwise produce is attenuated. Such deprivation of what otherwise would be a spontaneous intrinsically driven mix of pretend and real is missing, and with that loss, a less fertile imagination to enrich the expanding world perspectives is the result. The data about the current diminishment of kids’ spontaneous fantasy story-telling reveals a major loss of spontaneous rich imaginative content that in earlier times was the norm. So the grounding of oneself in free imaginative-pretend narratives is an important element to staying playful, optimistic and yes, staying more resilient as adult responsibilities and demands inevitably accrue. This is an important public health fundamental, as cooperative community cohesion and problem-solving demand imaginative solutions.

As play neuroscience becomes more comprehensive, the likelihood that playful imagination and emotional and intellectual intelligence is amplified by imagination is a reasonable expectation.

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IMAGINATIVE AND PRETEND PLAY: IMAGINATIVE PLAY IS AN IMPORTANT BEHAVIOR TO PROMOTE

LIFELONG CREATIVITY

The most value of play is gained when one experiences it as a joy-producing and life-enhancing “state of being.”

Experiencing the joy of play can expand one’s view from its being for kids only - with occasional non-work adult escapism - to a fresh, invigorating recognition of the many lifelong situations in which playfulness can be experienced. Whether deep engagement from the solitary joyful collection of four-leaf clovers, or exuberant playground rough and tumble chaos, to an elderly nursing home occupant reveling in hearing a beloved operatic aria, all represent states of play.

Common elements that identify a behavior as play or playful are spontaneous engagement, joy producing emotions, intrinsic motivation (done for its own sake guided by authentic personal preferences) as well as outcomes not expected by the player(s) such as increased personal mastery, more emotional regulation and ability to adapt to and handle life situations with greater resiliency. The benefits are manifold: it fosters the use of novelty to add new skills and knowledge, which is beneficial at any age.

Last month we began to focus on the uniquely human play propensity for imaginative or pretend play. While we are enacting pretend-imaginative play, we are the imagined characters. That it does not fully reflect reality is not a problem; the pretend-real dualism that characterizes imaginative early play gradually is blended more and more with the reality of seeing the world

through more mature eyes. However, and this is a big however...to maintain a rich imaginative life grounded in the freedom to play with possibilities is key to maintaining a creative, adaptive life as one matures. This capacity to continue to playfully imagine is what animates the creative sessions of corporations such as IDEO, with culture changing outcomes from group sharing of imaginative ways of problem solving.

Imaginative and pretend play are necessary and significant aspects on the path toward becoming competent adults, and also seeing imaginativepretend play as a prerequisite to experiencing life as part of living as a fully human adult. This is not the usual way of seeing imaginative life. Not all imagination is playful, but when it is not driven by anxiety or pressure for solution to a pressing problem, it qualifies as play.

Since play is deeply embedded in both playful animal and human behavior, it can be evoked by wide variety of “play triggers.” It is, however, a unique pattern of human play. Like other forms of play, human playful imagination is often sparked by “triggers” in the environment. They may be physical, situational, or verbal. PlayCore has studied many of these and incorporates them into a wide variety of play-evoking settings for children and adults alike. The play-driven internal narratives that youthful play produces becomes

the essence of the stream of consciousnessself, the REAL SELF; this private thought stream is the product-an amalgam of the evolving pretend-narrative. (And upon closer examination, it continues to elaborate as life progresses. We never relinquish our imaginations, they just often

get lost in the many demands of adulthood, or because we fail to honor the importance of keeping our adult imaginations fully alive.) But preceding the actual engagement into a play state usually requires anticipatory playful imagination.

The many basic elements of play, with imaginative play being one of its fundamentals are necessary components of our lifelong design to play. It is common consensus that kids need to play. However, the balanced adult life needs sufficient amounts of our preferred modes of play to keep us optimistic and better able to deal with life’s real demands.

TINKERING AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH PROBLEM SOLVING

Today, I am reveling in one of many long walks along the mile and a half white sandy stretch of beach that joins Carmel-by-the sea with the Pacific Ocean. It is impossible to have a bad day with this ambience… 17.

This article will focus on playful hand-brain connections and the often unexpected additional lasting benefits that play with one’s hands produces. I am particularly indebted to the remarkable work of now retired neurologist Frank Wilson for providing pioneering work memorialized in his landmark book, “The Hand, How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture.” For any blog reader looking to probe more deeply into the linkages between our overall human intelligence and our remarkable hands, I recommend Frank’s book.

The following story was passed on to me by the author, film maker, play expert and former Long Beach resident, Michael Mendizza, currently the CEO/Founder of the non-profit organization, “Touch the Future.”

Jet Propulsion Laboratories have been the United States premier aerospace research facilities for more than seven decades. Through their relationship with NASA, the scientists and engineers at JPL have designed and managed major components of every manned and unmanned mission of our time, and have been completely responsible for dreaming up, building, and operating complex projects like the robot vehicles that landed on Mars and explored the

planet’s surface for years. You might say that JPL invented the Space Age. No matter how big and ambitious the goal, the researchers could always be relied on to say, “We can do that.” But in the late nineties, the lab’s management was saying, “JPL, we have a problem.” As the lab neared the new century, the group of engineers and scientists who had come on board in the 1960s, those who put men on the moon and built robotic probes to explore the solar system, were retiring in large numbers. And JPL was having a hard time replacing them with innovative problem-solving research engineers. Even though JPL hired the top graduates from renowned engineering schools like MIT, Stanford, and even Cal Tech itself, the new hires were often missing something. They were not very good at certain types of problem solving that are critical to the job. The experienced managers found that the newly minted engineers might excel at grappling with theoretical, mathematical problems at the frontiers of engineering, but they didn’t do well with the practical difficulties of taking a complex project from theory to practice. Unlike their elders, the young engineers couldn’t spot the key flaws in one of the complex systems they were working on, or toss the problem around, break it down, pick it apart, tease out its critical elements, and rearrange them in innovative ways that led to a solution.

Then the head of JPL-NASA Human Resources found Nate Jones and Frank Wilson. Jones ran a Long Beach based renowned auto repair and machine shop that specialized in precision racing and Formula One tires. He had been mentoring kids interested in cars for years, and he had noticed that many of the new kids coming in to voluntary work at the shop were not able to problem solve

broadly by early playful hand crafting activities, and that overall human intelligence, even linguistic skills were related to “the hand in search of the brain, and the brain in search of the hand.”The article appeared in the Long Beach paper, and was read by the HR JPL-NASA executive, who agreed fully with the article’s conclusions. The JPL-NASA managers went back to look at their

Jones found that those who had worked and played with their hands as they were growing up were able to “see solutions” that those who hadn’t worked with their hands could not.

as adeptly as kids from an earlier era. They were eager to learn, but lacked common sense savvy that many of the earlier kids had demonstrated. Jones and his wife, who is a teacher, wondered what had changed. After questioning the new kids and the older now garage-alumni kids and garage employees, Jones found that those who had worked and played with their hands as they were growing up were able to “see solutions” that those who hadn’t worked with their hands could not. And most of the new kids were of the TV generation and were just entering the screen dominated computer era.

Jones’ daughter was also a teacher, and had read Frank’s book “The Hand,” and being intrigued by her Dad’s findings, arranged for Frank and Nate to confer. It was a serendipitous meeting, and together they agreed to write an article proposing that the difference in the kids Nate was now mentoring and earlier kids backgrounds was that the earlier kids had an almost universal common experience as TINKERERS. JPL was not then on their radar. This finding fit with Frank’s long hand-based research that the brain gets fertilized

own retiring engineers and found a similar pattern. They found that in their youth, their older, problem- solving research based employees had taken apart clocks to see how they worked, or made soapbox derby racers, or built hi-fi stereos, or had fixed appliances. The young engineering school graduates who had also done these things, who had played with their hands, were adept at the kinds of problem solving that management sought. Those who hadn’t, generally were not. From that point on, JPL-NASA made questions about applicants’ youthful projects and hand-play a standard part of job interviews.

From Frank Wilson’s research, he had concluded that the ability to mentally “play” with 3-dimensional imaginative objects well, was linked to the brain’s broad fertilization, and the many interconnections between the cerebellum and cerebral cortex stimulated by joyful handbrain activities. So the connections Frank had made through his meticulous hand-brain scholarship and the practical needs of JPL-NASA were satisfyingly confirmed, as was the wisdom of Nate, his wife and daughter.

And from my play-based viewpoint, the sustained motivation and engagement to keep building things with their hands meant that the good problem solving engineers in addition to being adept with their hands also had real fun in pursuing a natural affinity for using their hands.

One does not need to ultimately pursue an engineering career to gain benefits from messing around with one’s hands. A flood of neuroscience information now supports that hand-brain activity stimulates existing brain circuits that enhance overall human intelligence. (conclusions that Frank mentions again and again in his book)

So one of many take-aways from this blog is for preschoolers-assure that they enjoy the hands-

on experiential tactile pleasure of block play. By using blocks, children can piece together shapes to create a bigger picture, whether it is a representation of something they have seen or from their imagination. The open-ended nature of block play naturally lends itself to playing a key role in dramatic play activities. Creating a zoo, building a space ship or designing a castle are ideas a preschooler can bring to life using blocks.

And block play is just one of many early handobject play opportunities that are basic to accelerating the understanding of the world, its parts and your particular place in it!

The recently validated overall benefits of early and continued hand-play to human intelligence and wellbeing has me, after completing this blog to head today to the local lumber yard to get the wood and soil to build some planter-boxes for seasonable vegetable-planting that living in the Salinas Valley allows. Never too late!

EPIGENESIS, PLAY, AND ITS EFFECT ON OUR LIVES

Play and epigenesis - the importance of playfulness in the life of the expectant mother for the long-term benefit of both her and her developing child in the womb, and even beyond them to affect deeply the subsequent offspring of this in-utero child.

This is a new dimension focusing on the positive effects of play from before birth throughout the entire human life cycle and to generations beyond the present one. Wow! Not the usual way we see play behavior! (Naturally, the play behavior of an expectant mother should be fine-tuned to reduce any possibility of an injury.) Seems a stretch, but the evidence is accumulating, and reviewing it here allows us to see what contemporary science predicts. I will connect the scientific evidence with what I know about the beneficial effects of play, and hope that the reader will connect this “deep” but somewhat speculative information about play and its capacities to lessen stress to this growing body of information about play, as well as re-emphasize its importance and place in the lives of all of us demonstrating that play is a public health necessity.

In short, epigenesis is a name for changes to our genetic endowment that is the result of environmental experiences. Where the common thinking is that genes are fixed and cannot be modified, that is a too narrow way of seeing genetic inheritance. Yes, the basic DNA genetic code that is our unique individual pattern remains intact, like our fingerprints or eye color from generation to generation, but many of our 20,000+ genes can be activated or rendered dormant due to environmental influences. But how and when a gene susceptible to environmental manipulation

gets activated or is kept dormant or can be uniquely transformed by environmental influences is at the heart of the science of epigenesis.

To quote from an article by Nessa CarreyEpigenetics is the new discipline that is revolutionizing biology. Whenever two genetically identical individuals (like identical twins) are nonidentical in some way we can measure, this is called epigenetics. When a change in environment has biological consequences that last long after the event itself has vanished into distant memory, we are seeing an epigenetic effect in action.

When scientists talk about epigenetics they are referring to all the cases in which the genetic code alone isn’t enough to describe what’s happening— there must be something else going on as well.

Most of the current knowledge of epigenesis has been to specify the long-term pre and postnatal consequences that focus on the negative effects of stress, starvation or environmental toxins (like the fetal alcohol syndrome, lead in the water supply, etc…) The specifics of the molecular chemistry that identifies these epigenetic changes has been currently more and more identified. This means, and the majority of good science currently demonstrates, that severe negative life experiences leave their marks that persist even beyond the generation that these environmental experiences happened. The detailed long term

follow up by Dutch Scientists since the Nazi induced famine of 1944 has shown that this stress has been particularly significant for the starving pregnant mother and her third trimester fetus in utero. While the Dutch winter of 1944 and its deleterious effects have been meticulously studied and the negative prevalence of depression, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other major health and mental health issues are the result on the mother and subsequent generations, no comparative human studies on the positive epigenetic effects of high play, low stress, safe and well fed pregnancies have been conducted. Especially those studies that demonstrate the positive and enduring epigenetic multigenerational effects of low stress and good health during the positive pregnancies that are the optimum for safe and well nourished young mothers. However, the evidence of long term play’s positive effects on prebirth low stress, good nutrition pregnancies in both the human and animal worlds does indeed demonstrate the long term multigenerational effects of good pregnancy conditions.

The science for human play and lowered stress throughout our lifespans is just getting started. Fortunately, there are, however meticulous animal stress and play studies that provide evidence that positive epigenetic transmission occurs when play is allowed in controlled animal experimental settings. Alternatively, high stress, low play environments and the multigenerational effects of these toxic objectively researched animal controlled environments echo negatively for foreseeable generations in these animal studies, with many of the same physiologic effects clearly operative in us and our animal cousins. So common sense suggests that similar effects apply to our human species. Thus, for these controlled animal studies, (unethical to consider doing them with humans) both positive and negative epigenetic changes and play related positive animal outcomes allow this play science to be hypothetically applied to suggest that low stress, healthy play for pregnant to-be-human mothers is an Rx that is good common sense with sufficient science to promote healthy, safe individualized play into the lives of all pregnant women.

It is my view that mothers who are less stressed will benefit their unborn babies by positively inducing epigenetically induced health-enhancing traits, with individually appropriate play included as necessary. While the science of stress-induced multigenerational problems has been informing us of the damage stress creates, the stress reducing effects of play have not yet fully entered widespread prenatal advice. Prenatal vitamins, along with good nutrition, avoidance of alcohol, removal of toxic environmental contacts, etc. are generally dogma for expectant mothers.

Prenatal vitamins, along with good nutrition, avoidance of alcohol, removal of toxic environmental contacts, etc. are generally dogma for expectant mothers. Yet the positive effects of PLAY produces benefits for the mother, her unborn child, and that child’s future offspring. Wow again!

MUSIC IS PLAY FOR EVERYONE

Play, despite the solid scientific descriptions of its benefits for all age groups, is still often seen as mainly for kids, and not important for all throughout life. I want to emphasize how rhythm, music, and movement can help to produce “states” of play, which improve well-being and the quality of life.

From our joyous first smiles and playful interactions upon viewing our loving mother’s face, we are social beings dependent on each other for the experience of our play nature. Play is a basic element in our collectively human lives, and is “hard wired” into us as a necessary instinct.

We also live in a rhythmic world. The succession of the seasons, the phases of the moon, day and night cycles all influence how we experience ourselves, our bodies and emotions, and our surroundings. And as we explore our biological rhythms, we find that even at the cellular level, each of our trillions of cells vary in their activity and metabolism rhythmically. We are “circadian” (cyclic-rhythmic) in our essential biological design. Since music and dance have been part of our lengthy human heritage, it just may be that missing out on any of these ingrained behaviors results in an unnecessary loss of basic elements that provide us more social joy.

Play is foundational and necessary, and missing out on it at any stage of life has negative consequences. So allied activities that trigger our innate play responses, particularly those that break through habits that suppress play are to be encouraged. When play gets reintroduced to those who have been missing it, the flood of recognition of what has been missing is joyful. Music, dance and communal festivity form settings that are contagiously playful with profound enduring benefits.

My devotion to a better understanding of this play, has been amplified by my daughter Lauren’s recent experiences with play, music and dance. She is a 50ish Boulder, Colorado housewife, mother and community leader who summoned the courage last year to try a dance class at a local health club. It’s a mix of zumba-latin-funk-hip-hop steeped in irreverence and youth, though few in the class are youthful. Dancing has become lifechanging, but not in the ways one might anticipate.

She started out reluctant and self-conscious, struggling to follow the steps, find the beat, and sustain the energy to last, worried what people

thought of her less-than-perfect technique and outfits. But from the beginning, the instructor exuded joy and acceptance. The music is loud, commanding, penetrating, and popular, and often generates a reminiscent smile through the day, as well as the desire to move at home, and the undeniable ability to travel through life better.

Over the past year, her self-consciousness evaporated as her joy grew in the pure appreciation of moving to music. The movements have become intuitive, energetic, and forgiving, and she has become increasingly present, unburdened, grateful, and happy in this playful state. She adds, “When I grant myself the freedom and permission to be fully present, awake, and participatory, I have a great time and the whole day becomes remarkably better. My head is

Music, dance, and communal festivity form settings that are contagiously playful with profound enduring benefits. “

clearer and my decisions stronger. I am less afraid of life’s challenges, and more willing to step up.”

For my very busy, involved and somewhat play-deprived daughter, the triggering of her innate capacity and need for play required the combination of elements that dance provided. And each of us, whatever our life situation can easily miss out on what our play nature within us is waiting to provide. Among them are increased engagement in life with optimism, more energy to deal with the challenges we all face, better stress management, and the realization that within us are the capacities for more joy and more.

These are the benefits and very positive outcomes from finding our places in the universes of play.

“PLAY VACCINATIONS”: A REGULAR DOSE OF PLAY HAS IMMEASURABLE HEALTH BENEFITS

The COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on all of us has produced an understandable longing for a vaccine to end this modern-day plague, and give us our normal lives back.

The history of vaccinations is fascinating, beginning with Jenner and smallpox in the late 18th century, and continuing to the recent development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

This blog will examine a broader concept of vaccination, not by describing the use of a new injection or special oral potion to stimulate and orchestrate antibodies against a toxic invader, but to suggest that through the experience of, and regular activation of resources that resonate inside all of us, increased overall well-being is achieved.

Just as vaccines are a public health priority, so too, might recognition and implementation of the importance of regular play “vaccinations” be seen as being as necessary as hand-washing, good nutrition or adequate sleep.

My life experiences in public health matters, first as one who lived his childhood prior to the antibiotic era in the late 30’s and early 40’s, during which I lost my best friend at age 8 to meningitis (no antibiotics then available), and later to see a Polio epidemic in Chicago change the landscape from open play and crowded swimming pools to an almost shelterat–home living mandate. The Polio vaccine was introduced in 1955. I remember thinking how lucky I was to be alive in the antibiotic and vaccine eras.

Later, while a US Navy physician in San Diego, I got to know the Polio vaccine discoverer Jonas Salk as he built the renowned Salk Institute on Torrey Pines Mesa through the generosity of the March of Dimes philanthropy. After my Navy years, I journeyed elsewhere for further medical and research training, and returned to San Diego and again enjoyed the continuing pleasure and honor of spending more time with him as friend, neighbor and colleague.

The lingering combination of the Salk friendship, (he died in 1995) and his highly personal review of the history of vaccinations, his openness to also finding ways of altering violent or destructive human behaviors, plus my formal post-doctoral medical training, and the many subsequent years of play-based research has recently lead me to broaden the vaccine concept to apply its benefits also to instinctive human and animal behavioral patterns. These patterns, like our ingrained immune system are deeply embedded into our natures, and have survived the ravages of time, plagues, wars and planetary changes. There are genes and physiologic organizers for the immune system that have persisted, but also in our genes and environmental proclivities are survival patterns of behavior also, with play being one that

20. “PLAY VACCINATIONS”: A REGULAR DOSE OF PLAY HAS IMMEASURABLE HEALTH BENEFITS

is rarely if ever seen as such. (Science demonstrates it to be now so seen and so understood)

So I want to apply these playful life experiences and have them placed in perspective with the current reality of this worldwide pandemic. This is not to downplay COVID-19 and its penetrance

Getting oneself and the family into states of play regularly is a necessary vaccination.

and realities into our daily personal lives and worldwide economic and political realities, nor in any way lessen the significance of its devastating mortality and morbidity, but add what I have found through my play studies as an effective counter to the pervasive attitudinal negativities and their consequences that the pandemic produced.

Play exists and has survived for millions of years (like our immune systems) probably because it fosters long-term survival and adaptation to a

changing world. Here are just a few of its benefits, these now being more and more objectively solidified by reputable scientific research: trust, mutual attunement, empathy, resilience, adaptability, innovation, creativity, optimism, communal belonging, immune system benefits, sustained intrinsic motivation and the persistent desire to acquire mastery, and more.

As I have emphasized in other articles, play as it is experienced needs to be enjoyed as a “state of being.” These moments of play can be quite different for each of us, depending on the life circumstances, age, culture and more.

Getting oneself and the family into states of play regularly is a necessary vaccination…but does not always require anything more than a playful state of mind. This morning, atypically home-bound due to the pandemic, I watched a replay of Federer win a long-past Wimbledon, and being engaged in its action, my mood and sense of vitality were lifted. My morning play vaccination. Or imagine visiting a beloved but demented grandparent who you musically coached, smiling, into singing “you are my sunshine” as if for the first time. Whenever it is experienced, good things happen to the players.

Getting oneself into this play based different-fromall-others “state of being” is the play vaccination goal. Maybe daily or even hourly. Get there as often as you can, and and the other benefits of play… empathy, optimism, an increased sense of vitality, will, with the pleasurable repetition that play fosters, be more and more… yours.

This is what nature has offered us to cope with the inevitable travail of being in this world that can throw us the curve-balls of pandemics… and more. Play On!

PLAY IS A UNIVERSAL GIFT OF NATURE IN TIMES OF CHALLENGE AND STRESS

I find it a remarkable opportunity to share some of the wonderment and substantive information that has come my way as I delve deeply into the promises and power of play. 21.

This play exploration has continued to provide me with an urgency to communicate more about play, reinforced from the many recent play discoveries that demonstrate its benefit in our personal and communal well-being. Play can improve our lives, and in times of stress, the more subtle avenues for each of us to access our natural play instincts offers benefits we otherwise might miss.

This article will focus initially on “the big picture” of play, why, despite many influences that can suppress or diminish its significance, it nonetheless persists as an important intrinsic component of human nature, worldwide. In addition, after offering some historic perspectiveproviding about play and human nature, I will add some suggestions that may enable anyone to implement it more effectively individually during these times of great challenge.

Our lives and those of our children were certainly affected by the pandemic, its forced stark community changes, its economic realities, along with the personal daily mental, physical, emotional and ecologic challenges it produced. We adults, in our individual ways, embraced it as did our children, who are acutely sensitive to the surrounding emotions and dislocations it produced. For most of us, this meant less access to our usual play resources. (playgrounds closed, visitation to beloved relatives stopped, etc.). That obligatory and necessary “organizing” element

in our lives, however did not mean that our play natures were suppressed by it, it just meant we had to be more innovative in seeing to it that we prioritized play experiences, and tapped into this universally available resource to better cope with our changed world situation.

Remember, our essential design is two-fold. We are all unique individuals and we are also collectively members of a highly social species, like none other. Despite the fact that we possess qualities that allow our unique individualities to prosper, (and which play enriches) we still find ourselves with overall social needs to interact regularly and find ways to get along supportively and interdependently with our friends, relatives, neighbors, community and beyond.

The evidence from play science demonstrates, also, that we all, children and adults, have untapped play-based resources that are there for us to access, which exist in us despite the many ongoing difficult circumstances. These play reservoirs and which have been provided for us by nature have persisted through past difficult and varied historic situations. (famines, diseases, natural disasters, political upheavals, wars, etc.) By embracing them, they keep us upbeat, positive, and resilient. When examining the lives of non-players, comparing them to play-fulfilled individuals, research has been able to show how play itself contributes to getting along better with ourselves, (play as a good anti-depressant) and

certainly provides the tools to better get along non-violently, cooperatively and innovatively with each other.

Play is not generally seen as being this foundational for living in a changing, challenging world, but it is a necessary ingredient for individual and communal balance. Beyond enabling us to better deal with individual and social requirements, it provides us with adaptive flexibilities, and openness to explore the unexpected. So, the wisdom of play is particularly needed to help us cope with life’s challenges, the pandemic, and our polarized society. Thank goodness… It still is fun and rejuvenating to play.

How we react, adapt to the unexpected, handle challenges, are resilient (or collapse) while stressed, of course varies immensely with our life circumstances. But like breathing air, eating, sleeping, reproducing, grieving the dead, seeking care and shelter, there are basics that we all share that are fundamental components worldwide. Play is there to prepare us to better live our two-fold lives, but the prevailing way of seeing play is that it is necessary for kids, but very elective for responsible adults

A scholarly look at human history allows play to be viewed in context with its shaping of how we as hunter-gatherers survived in the past. This long but accurate view allows us to keep it applicable to our overall well being NOW.

When we look deeply at our pre-historic human heritage from before the agricultural era which was established some 10,000 years ago, (our paleo-anthropologic past) the views by those who have done so exhaustively, (Peter Gray, for example,) are that they see many of our forbearers as predominantly living communally as small foraging and hunting Nomadic tribes for at least 200,000 years, and likely much longer. Though there are many variations in locale and gathering or hunting ecologies, nonetheless, we are still biologically grounded in our current bodies and psyches still with the residual physiologic foundations largely long established when we were Hunter-Gatherers. Of course we then and now have been influenced by our varied surroundings and cultural heritages, and now as a majority, we are enveloped in urban living and worldwide burgeoning technology.

This majority reality can make it tough to access our basic nature. And despite all us human beings

21. PLAY IS A UNIVERSAL GIFT OF NATURE IN TIMES OF CHALLENGE AND STRESS

also possessing the genetic propensities for competition and violence, and having capacities to live virtually anywhere on earth, somehow these long surviving Hunter-Gatherer tribes, and the few remnant examples that still exist today, were able to not only survive, but to do so with communal sharing and egalitarian governance for many eons more than our post-agricultural city-state civilizations, most of which have ended or transitioned to new ways of living.

The conclusions by such scholars as Peter Gray are that play itself has been a positive force to sustain this egalitarianism. My own early research on homicidal males who, we discovered had severe lifelong play deficits upholds in modern terms these conclusions that fostering the playful side of human nature promotes non-violent pro-social behavior. The beneficent legacy of life after life examined to assess the effects of sufficient play or its absence provides up to date credible backing for the importance of including play now in one’s life from birth to death. As previously noted, our dual natures, individual and communal, are sustained in part by the inclusion of play.

This insight about the importance of play itself is shared by PlayCore. So here is where the skillful bringing of play opportunities by PlayCore

triggers our play capacities and universal needs to bring more life enhancing play into our contemporary lives. The closure of playgrounds and other playful recreation amenities, along with the restrictions on group play that we lived in through the pandemic, placed limits on easy play access, but it does not mean we are any less playful.

A means of keeping play’s presence more alive is to find our own “Play Personalities.” I hope each reader of this article recognizes within themselves that they have their own individual “Play Personality” and that it is also an intrinsic aspect of their children, spouses, relatives and friends.

Are you or those you know finding quick joy by being… Explorers? Directors? Collectors? Competitors? Artists? It is likely your own best talents connect with your Play Personality. By recognizing this, the playful heritage that got embedded in all of us through our long huntergatherer era of existence will get activated, and this has great personal and societal benefit.

My research also demonstrates that severe play deprivation, particularly during childhood years of rapid development, has consequences that make harmonious communal cooperation difficult.

So understanding our play heritage as well as recognizing how necessary it is to activate it regularly (see the article on play vaccination) allows us to see play for what it is, but better yet, make personalized play a life necessity for ourselves and those we love.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND... DOG PARKS

It is a winter sunrise morning, and Cookie, a 50 lb. female elegant ebony-haired mutt discovered a year ago at the local SPCA, and now a secure resident in my homestead, has just scratched on my home-office door, and with sparkling eyes wants to say good morning. 22.

I open the door to licks and half-jumps, a few vocal squeaks, a quick romp around the office, and my day starts off with a glow she has provided. The neuroscientist in me says, “she must have sparked the release of my latently sequestered brain-harbored oxytocin!” Whatever has happened, it is so good to have this dog, and share our companionship.

Whenever I have the opportunity to write for PlayCore, and ponder what aspects of play and play science to emphasize, I find myself enlivened by the breadth of play applications that are so practically addressed and expanded though its manifold corporate endeavors. So, it is because that not only do I obviously have a soft spot for the whole gamut of human-dog play, but I know that the dog park element is an important and growing PlayCore focus.

By looking broadly at the intricate, long and varied human-dog attachment history, such an endeavor evokes deeper appreciation for our unique bonding with them. This historic perspective, combined with some current neuroscience explanations allows even greater appreciation for the special experiences our dogs provide for so many of us. Dog parks offer, particularly in congested urban settings, the opportunities to play and bond – all to the betterment of the dogs and owners.

Humans and dogs have been inseparable for eons. Evidence of mutual involvement has been documented for over 33,000 years, with mutual burials dated for at least 15,000 years. No surprises here. Despite the obvious evidence of our being differing species, we humans and dogs do love and care for each other and have since prehistory.

In reviewing the existing PlayCore material available through its web site, I find the well-researched “Unleashed,” a publication describing optimum conditions for planning and designing leash-free dog parks, with some of the following emphases on their value.

The value of dog parks

Health and well-being benefits

Social and community benefits

Choosing a location

Dog-friendly settings

Promoting usage

Building a dog park

Marketing and programming your dog park

So it is evident that PlayCore has recognized dog parks’ importance, and is committed to their being well-positioned, designed, and used. But my focus here is to promote and provide a deeper and greater understanding of the nature and the benefits of play. My experience is geared toward understanding and promoting the boisterous joyful outcome of most dog parks, which is often the result of unfettered dog-dog and humandog play which good parks foster and promote.

The existing writings about dog parks do not allow easy generalizations about them, as they differ in size, congestion, and codes of owner and dog behaviors, but some well-studied parks provided solid data and useful conclusions. Of the many dog-dog interactions, one study has shown in more than 1000, less than 2% involve aggression. And even in these unfortunate circumstances, of the 2%, injuries are very, very rare. So the common (wrong) impression of serious aggression being a part of dog park norms is just not accurate. Other larger studies of dog-dog interactions report predominantly positive outcomes, for both the dogs and the increased socialization among owners, with trends over the years of observation toward better and better dog and owner behaviors, despite reports of owner over control, bully dogs and the occasional difficult

owner or serious dog aberrations.

One observation that has been commented on repeatedly is the problem of well-meaning but naive owners unfamiliar with the exuberance and intensity of normal rough and tumble, rather wild unfettered play, not recognized as a normal dog response to open unleashed play opportunities. This lack of recognition of the difference between serious aggression and the pseudo aggression of rough and tumble play results in many owners preventing their pups from freely engaging in this normal dog pastime. My dear friend Marc Bekoff, dog play expert extraordinaire, (I filmed him with his dog, Jethro for the National Geographic 28 years ago) now emeritus professor of Colorado U., is a real authority on dog (and animal) play. For those of you with a scholarly bent, he can be googled and his writings on dog parks and his books and writings about animal play behaviors and more provide in-depth well written material that will take you beyond this article.

But in order to better define some elements of dog play and differentiate them from non-play, we provide the following descriptions.

When two or more dogs unfamiliar with each other meet, often the butt sniffing exploratory hello is off-putting for some owners. However,

my experience in unleashed situations is that the mutual tail wag provides entrée to the endeavor - becoming a quick offer to miss the butt sniffing preliminaries and get right to the full on rough and tumble romp. Some instances precede the play with a formal play bow. Others (like Cookie) get flat on bellies with legs extended until a mutual play signal is passed and the rough and tumble chase and escape wild melee is mutually agreed upon often from 10 feet or more distance. But it is fun to note that many other play signals get passed continuously during this highly intricate form of play. Usually each dog involved has a continuous “play face” during the episode…. an open mouthed, lips covering the majority of the teeth almost smiling, tongue often protruded invitation to keep the romp going. And romp it is… paw slapping, play biting (not hard enough to hurt). If aggression is the intent, one or both of the invitees will show fangs, lips retracted, growling obvious that this is not to be play. Usually if one or both or more dogs are involved, and the signals are mixed, that is, not all have agreed to play, the group breaks up without a big fight or without the mutual agreement that playground rules (no aggression) is the order of the day, and agreed upon.

In over 15 years of off-leash encounters at the Carmel Beach, I have yet to see or hear of a serious fight, and my visits constitute hundreds of strangers and all sizes and breeds of dogdog and dog-human boisterous interactions. Certainly a few very particular owners prevent open play, but they are the exceptions.

For those readers who have not pondered the intricacies of dogs at play, and in particular in order for the contagion of dog play to reach the emotions of dog owners/observers, here are some descriptions of the play “states” that dogs exhibit, and which may provide a guide at least to the deep instinctive forces that so beautifully emerge in spontaneous doggie play.

Anticipation of play - gives the dogs and us a shot of dopamine

Surprise - likely a bit of nor adrenaline to prime new brain circuits

Pleasure - likely the surge of endocannabinoids that keep the play state going

Understanding - likely the rough and tumble play activates latent cortical genes that opens up new circuits in the cortex

Strength - the exuberant exercise adds muscle, agility, etc.

Poise - current research lends me to believe the neurotransmitter or gene activation prompts this one, but likely it is cerebro-cerebellar circuit enhancement from the multiple movements, social intricacy, etc. inherent in rough and tumble play

In closing, what is of particular fun for me is to find that the contagion of play when I experience it full on in dog-dog play has a mood and bodyaltering effect just from watching it! And this is true for all of us. Having a down day?

Take your dog to a dog park, and inhale the pure freedom of their play as nature has dictated!

THE SCIENCE BEHIND INTERGENERATIONAL PLAY

As PlayCore readers who follow my writings have already noted, I am a fan of uniting the deeply embedded human play nature which we all possess with those influences and life opportunities that set in motion this wonderful component of our human spirit.

And my focus has been and will continue to be on the “science” that supports Real Play and bringing the science and practices that promote play into the lives of all ages more fully. So it is continual fun and inspiration for me to realize that PlayCore and its range of products and programs are in sync with the broad reach of play science as it can now be demonstrated. This makes PlayCore a company like none other. So this entry will continue this emphasis, and will provide a focus on the importance of MIXED AGE PLAY.

I was fortunate to have an older brother who allowed me to join his pals in sand lot games and free play that characterized after school and weekends during my elementary school years. Looking back now through decades of play research that I have enjoyed, the time spent in my formative years with multiple opportunities for play with older boys shaped my sense of who I have become, and gave me the annealing lessons that mixed age play produces. It also allows me to validate its importance for life as kids as well as providing us with a template for later adulthood. So I come at this subject with both the early experiential assurance of its value, supplemented by the in-depth scholarship and research that my own research and the substantive science based data that many play pioneers have provided.

A reminder… “ we are built to play, and built by play,” and we all are fundamentally members of a playful, social species. As you know from previous blogs, we share these basic collective characteristics with many of our animal cousins, and in research settings which measure the effects of play or the consequences of its elimination in the lives of animals, they find that the results of the latter are devastating!

The outcomes of such controlled laboratory observations, accomplished in depth with colonies of rats by Jaak Panksepp and Sergio Pellis, show the value of not only play itself, but of the learning that it requires play to inculcate cooperation and tolerance of other complexities in pack behavior. Play deprived rats just cannot get along with each other, mate normally, or handle aggression. Play is clearly necessary for this species to survive. There is much we can learn from this scientific evidence.

We humans are, of course a very different species, but our in-depth brain circuits and neurotransmitters that govern the motivation to care and get along with each other and play together are very similar.

From these objective animal play lab findings, the effects of play adequacy or deprivation on a wide

variety of animal behaviors, such as pack belonging, maze learning (memorization), brain size, adaptation to stress, etc. the accumulated data from animal play researchers is quantitative and useful for extending its findings to a wide variety of similar human situations. Their life work and that of other animal play scholars and researchers grounds play science, and has, along with a growing body of human play data, helped play science to emerge as a new coherent and important discipline.

Additionally, devastating human circumstances such as the tragic effects of early social deprivation in the past, such as the well reported results from the stark (Ceausescu era) Romanian orphan nurseries is tragic, and the long term follow up of these children tragically demonstrates the devastation of their early deprivations. Fortunately, by heartening contrast, other socially rich orphan nurseries, in particular the Pikler post WWII Hungarian nurseries provide substance for the value of warm relationships and playful opportunities that characterized the Pikler settings. Long term follow-up of these Pikler orphan “graduates” reveals the life fulfilling and competent life adjustments that resulted from otherwise high risk orphan children, and demonstrates the rewarding positive long-term effects that this nourishing and multiage highly playful settings produced. So it is evident from animal and many human situations that developing complex social species, ours included, require early multiple contact social play enrichment for the essentials of healthy social normalcy to develop.

In linking these animal and varied human observations, I am reminded of conclusions from my own research that allows play deprivation to be identified as correlated with serious criminal behavior. What we discovered is how serious early and continuing play deprivation had been in shaping, or lacking to shape competency and the ability to handle aggression into the lives of incarcerated homicidal males (compared with

a large matched cohort) and how different were the lives of the “play adequate” comparison populations. These and other associated findings led our research staff to conclude that “belonging” and being morally connected to a community requires adequate complex play experiences. Particularly for young homicidal males, we found that safe gradually more complex rough and tumble play appeared to provide the social learning and empathy awareness necessary to modify harmful aggressive behavior.

So just as animals need complex playful social interactions to function communally, it’s not too great a stretch to assume that we, too as a playful social species, also need complex play experiences to “belong” and have empathy for our fellow playful associates. Yes, I believe the animal and clinical human data demonstrates that it is profoundly necessary for humans to engage early on in progressively more complex social play as a shared solid developmental social neurobiological need.

So, let us affirm here again that experiencing early and continuing multiage social playful experiences are foundational elements for us all to activate and understand as being essential for fulfilled competent living.

The pandemic’s isolation and its effects on child mental and physical health is evident. However, the need for lifelong play, the value of early mixed aged play, and yes, play beyond childhood is emerging as important doctrines that play science is confirming.

Future blogs will continue to affirm the benefits of mixed age play as an antidote to adult burn-out, and offer gateways to more fulfilling lives.

Those who have had the pleasure of studying child development, know and appreciate the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social benefits of play.

Mixed age play for kids is nature’s way of preparing them for more complex group living. Now we can combine these positive aspects of early play with scientific evidence of how harmful play deprivation is to our species, at any age.

By understanding more about play, for you, your community, your children or grandchildren, you will gain fresh vitality. Adults do not need to forsake their responsibilities to enjoy the lifeenhancing benefits of play.

- Dr. Stuart Brown “ ”