My Connections to Play

Play energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities.

Stuart Brown, MD Contemporary American psychiatrist

It’s 1984 and I am 6 years old. When I wake up in the morning I get dressed and quickly eat a bowl of cereal. Before my mom can get me to brush my hair or my teeth I am out the front door. I do not need many material things to keep me happy and engaged because I love to be outside and the neighborhood is filled with children my age. Also my grandparents live directly across the street and my cousin who is a year older than me often comes to visit. Our street is only two blocks long, everyone knows each other, and the road is barely used by cars except for those who live on the street. This is our playground and there is an abundance of things for us to do. One of my favorite things to do is take my boom box outside with me and set it on the front steps and listen to music. Two of my closest friends live about four houses down and that is where I begin my day, knocking on their front door waiting for them to come out and play with me. Once they are permitted to come out and play we go back down to my house and put on the music. On this particular day we decide to listen to a song and create a dance to the words of a song. Yakety Yak by the Coasters is the song we like. We play the song over and over acting out what we interpret the song to mean. I even take the broom from my mother’s kitchen closet to pretend to sweep. We do this for what seems to be hours. 

When my friends and I have become bored with our dance project we decide to play kick ball. To play kick ball we have to get the rest of the kids in the neighborhood to come and join us. The boys from down the street come over and we have a game going. With all the kids in the neighborhood we have about 12 kids so we can evenly split the teams. Of course the boys do dominate the girls, but we still hold our own. My dad comes out and volunteers to pitch the ball to us and helps us make bases. We had bases made out of pizza boxes, someone’s shirt, or even a broken down pop can. Our field is in the street, but there is never a time that we get worried about cars. Even when a car did travel down the road we would pause the game and immediately go right back to where we were. We all got along and there were hardly ever any conflicts between us while we were playing, above arguing whether we got the guy out at second base. It is time for lunch and some parents try to get their children to come home but most just figure we will eat when we are hungry. My mom would sometimes let everyone come out to the back porch and she would make us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. 

On hot days we had a pool and of course we were the house to gather at. We could swim for hours. There were many games we liked to play such as Marco Polo, catch, or creating a whirlpool were everyone worked together walking as fast as we could around the edge of the pool. We never stopped moving during the day. We would take a break from the pool and ride our bikes around the block and then get back in the pool. On most days we had to be in when the streets lights came on. We would cry and argue while begging for just a few more minutes. However, there were some days that our parents would light the tiki torches and allow us to go night swimming. It is funny to me that as active as we were throughout the day we were still up early in the morning to start again.

When children pretend, they’re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero.

Fred Rogers

American children’s television host

For me adults were involved but not actively. We were left to our own imaginations. We figured out what to play, how to play it, and what materials we were going to use to have the most fun with it. We were not just physically active. We were using the tools in our mind actively creating scenarios for play. If you told us back then that we were learning and growing while we were playing, we would not believe you, and it might have even taken the fun out of it.

I believe that play today is extremely different than when I was younger, for many reasons. Electronics and media use has grown and children rarely ache to be outdoors. When I was younger the most television we would watch is Saturday morning cartoons and maybe a movie here or there when my parents allowed it. Children today have their eyes glued to the television, video game, computer, Ipad, Ipod, cell phone, or etc. Physical activity is not at the top of their priority list. I feel children need to learn how to play and use their imagination. It seems to me that these media outlets are not leaving much imagination up to the children and it seems to be desensitizing them as well. My hope is that parents start getting more involved and guide their children to more active play, limit their time with technology and show them what fun they can create outside.

For me, play has taught me many things. When I was younger we played from the time we opened our eyes until we passed out in our beds at night. Our minds were constantly engaged and our imaginations ran wild. I was physically active and stayed physically healthy. Staying physically happy is not the only positive aspect. When we played we were using our minds, creating, and building on the learning foundations that were laid by parents and teachers. Little did we know at the time that while playing kick ball we were using mathematical tools. Today in adulthood I still know how to play. I have four children that I am always playing with. Their technology time is limited, but there are moments when I come in and shut the television off and say it is dance party time. We dance, laugh, and sing. Playing is not only good for the mind in terms of development and learning; it is also good for the emotional and mental well-being of a child or adult. Stress is a fact of life, we all face it at some point in time and some face it more than others. When we play, even as an adult, we lessen the impact of stress in our lives.

If you want to be creative, stay in part a child, with the creativity and invention that characterizes children before they are deformed by adult society.

Jean Piaget

Swiss philosopher