My Connections to Play

It is in playing, and only in playing, that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.

D.W. Winnicott
British pediatrician
1896–1971

 

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

Plato
Greek philosopher
427–347 BC

When I think about my childhood and play in my neighborhood, I remember my grandmother and my babysitter.  Mrs. Mathis was my babysitter and she always made sure we spent as much time outside playing as inside learning.  I can remember always having a ball because kickball and dodge ball were my two favorite games.  We did not have a lot, but we were happier than at any other time in my life. Parents actually made their children go outside and play in order for them to work off excess energy and because it was all the entertainment most of us had during that time. The innocence that goes with being young and enjoying life with your friends reminds me of good times, being carefree and never worrying.  We didn’t need a lot to feel that we had everything.  Today’s children still have that innocence.  The difference between our play and the play children engage in today is that there is less time and emphasis placed on its importance in the lives of children.  It is no longer important that children have recess or that that spend quality time outside engaging in play.  We did not have the luxury of spending our days watching television, playing video games or texting on the phone.  Children would rather spend time playing and looked forward to that time each day before the “sun went down” and we would have to go inside.  In the State of Mississippi, we have the highest obesity rate of any state in the nation.  A lot of this is not just because of our eating, but also because of the lack of exercise our children get because they spend more time sitting in a classroom than on a playground.  We spend more time stressing the importance of math, English, and science that on a child’s health and proper exercise and nutrition.  As a child, play allowed me to develop socially and physically and has helped me today when it comes to working with our children in the classroom, on the playground or engaging them during a counseling session.  We must look at helping the whole child and that means not overlooking the importance of play.  It is as important in the development of a child as their social, emotional and cognitive skills.  A healthy child is a happy child and play is a vital part of that happiness.