Play is not merely a trivial pursuit but a vital component across various sectors of society. And play isn’t just for children; it’s a critical component in higher education as well as a strategic tool for innovation and engagement.
Rolling Stone wrote an article on the benefits of play and how to incorporate it into one’s work life.
Play is an important part of children’s learning and development. Playful learning – an area of research that examines how children learn best through playful exchanges – shares many of the same core foundations as the study of intergenerational learning, a body of research involving older and younger generations coming together in the service of mutually beneficial learning experiences.
A commentary piece by Brookings examines how playful learning creates multigenerational opportunities with intergenerational impacts.
One of the major barriers to healthy development in the United States is toxic stress, which occurs when we are threatened and the body releases emergency stress hormones that prime us to handle stressful events. Toxic stress can occur when a child experiences strong, frequent, or prolonged adversity without adequate adult support.
Research by Kaboom finds that play is part of the solution to create supportive, responsive relationships with adults that can help to prevent the detrimental effects of the toxic stress response.
