Research finds play vital to turning out healthy, well-adjusted children — and adults

Play is serious business, both for children and adults.

In fact, it is so serious that The Association for the Study of Play, or TASP, has been holding conferences on the subject for decades. TASP’s 44th annual International Conference comes to Brevard from Feb. 28 to March 3. TASP, dedicated to interdisciplinary research concerning play throughout the world, has scheduled speakers representing eight countries and 22 states.

The conference will examine the need to play. Keynote speaker Dr. Peter Gray, a research professor at Boston College, calls play “first and foremost an expression of freedom.”

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Dr. Walter Drew, director of Brevard’s Reusable Resources Adventure Center, agrees.

“Play is primarily about freedom, exploration, invention and discovery, which is the groundwork for developing essential life skills,” he said.

“Self-active play is where children lean to focus and control their attention, express their own interests and explore possibilities for further consideration. Active play helps children develop self-control, a willingness to investigate possibilities, to be flexible and resilient in overcoming limitations. Without rich play experiences in early childhood, it is less likely children will develop a life-long love of learning and authentic self-competence.”

When Drew or Gray talk about play, they are not referring to video games, but rather to open-ended play, which exercises the imagination and creativity, important ingredients in problem-solving.

“Open-ended play strengthens our ability to deal with uncertainty,” said Drew. “It offers the opportunity to create our own environments, to play by our own rules.”

Open-ended play is when a child expresses his or her creativity, with no pre-determined rules our limitations.

Drew’s Reusable Resources Adventure Center provides an excess of materials, from foam, fabric and felt, to wood, wire and tile, all donated by local businesses. For educators and parents, the center can be a treasure trove of imagination-inciting play opportunities.

OK, so play is great and kids — and even adults — should be enjoying as much of it as possible. The problem is that children, are getting fewer and fewer chances to play with abandonment. Research shows a dramatic decline in children’s free play, particularly outdoor play, over the past several decades. This decline accompanies an increase in childhood depression and anxiety.

To blame is increased emphasis on standardized testing performance, which restricts available free play time during school hours, while communal fear of the dangers facing children keeps kids under wraps at home. 

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“Play helps children understand concepts, but unfortunately we’re losing play in schools,” said Ayana Verdi, founder of Verdi EcoSchool in the Eau Gallie Arts District.

“Children explore the world through play. If we take play away, we’re taking away the purest aspect of learning.”

Verdi, one of the guest speakers at the conference, opened her immersive k-to-8 urban farm school in frustration at the American school system’s approach to play.

“We had lived in New Zealand, where they believe kids should be exploring and playing in the outdoors as much as possible,” said Verdi.

When her family returned home, Verdi could not find the learning experience her son enjoyed in New Zealand, so she decided to replicate it on her own.

Conference speaker Pat Rumbaugh, aka The Play Lady, believes everyone was born to play, needs to play and deserves to play, yet play is slipping away from our daily lives despite our craving for play, even after we grow up.

A 2012 report from JWT Intelligence notes that more than three-quarters of adults miss being able to “play like a child” and 82 percent would like to recapture some of the fun and imagination of childhood.

“If we fail to practice play, we lose our ability to be resilient,” said Drew. “This is true for children as well as adults. It is through the act of play that we develop our ability to cope, to co-operate and to build a sense of community.”

The speakers at the Study of Play conference will advise you that to remain forever young, forget the Botox and the plastic surgery and instead schedule some play time, for when we stop playing, we grow old, no matter what age we may be.

Study of Play

The public is invited to participate in the Association for the Study of Play’s 44th annual International Conference, to be held from Feb. 28 through March 3 at the Crowne Plaza Melbourne Oceanfront, 2605 N. State Road A1A, Melbourne

A one-day attendance pass, available only to Florida residents, is $10 for undergraduate students, $20 for graduate students, $5 for TASP members and $70 for nom-members. The pass provides admittance to all presentations on any given day.

Register on site. For complete list of programs, see tasplay.org.

The Reusable Resources Adventure Center, 2255 Meadowlane Ave., West Melbourne (behind West Melbourne Elementary School for Science), offers creative materials that children can use in open-ended play.

“We think of these materials as being open-ended because their usage is limited only by the imagination of the user,” said Center founder Dr. Walter Drew.

A paper grocery bag full of interesting materials costs $5.

The Center is open from 3 to 6 p.m. on the first, second and third Wednesdays of the month and from 9 a.m. until noon on the fourth Saturday.

The Verdi EcoSchool is at 1851 Highland Ave., Eau Gallie Arts District. For more information, call 321-298-2501, visit verdiecoschool.org or email Info@VerdiEcoSchool.org.

Maria Sonnenberg is a Melbourne-based freelance writer.