What is your topic?
The benefit of play. However, what seems to be missing from the
conversation is how adults can learn to be more playful as a general mental
state and how to bring the playful state of mind into daily life. My hypothesis is that through repetitive
exposure to strategically crafted group and individual exercises the adult
brain can rewire itself neurologically into a more playful state, allowing for
a more adaptive, innovative and problem solving oriented mind. Repetitively exposing and engaging a mind in
a play state, the mental state allowing for optimum playful behavior and
thought, will fire up neural pathways designed for interpreting daily work,
relationship, and intrapersonal problems, in a more joyful and creative
approach. This will lead to higher level
solution oriented thinking and behavior coupled with overall increased personal
happiness. However, in order to design
an effective play curriculum, we must first understand and study the why, how,
and what of play as well as define its benefits. Understanding play in an overall sense in
conjunction with modern neuroscience will serve as a road map through which an
effective well developed play program can emerge. Thus, it is my intention through this paper
to examine the aspects of play critical to aiding the development of a
successful play conditioning program vital to the future.
What
do you think about your topic/ Why is your topic important?
Play is crucial to the continual
survival of the human condition as it exists today. Unfortunately, this is being threaten by the
continuous ramping up momentum of our fast pace world and technology boom. Play builds neurological connections critical
to developing a resilient, adaptable, solution oriented creative mind. These traits will be vital to the human
condition in our emerging world. With
the treat of artificial intelligence becoming more prominent, and increased
exporting of the more menial task oriented jobs to computers, the traits found
in and developed through play will insure the ability of the human mind and
condition to thrive in this changing landscape.
What
do you know about it?
Play is wildly underfunded due to a
general lack of value play seems to have in our society. Perhaps this lack of value is due to those
misconceptions. We dismiss play as the
simple act of fun. Although fun is often
a bi-product of play or as some say “play in action”, it is not synonymous with
play itself. From my perspective, due to
the Puritan heritage of this country, there is a residual paradigm that our
society subscribes to, that says play equals fun, which must mean lack of work,
which in turn, means laziness. If
play means laziness and hard work is valued above all else, it stands to reason
play must be bad. However, this is
terribly misguided, and frankly quite sad.
Drawing from a background in theater
and improvisation, author Neva L. Boyd, examines play behavior, play structure,
and the values of play. She discusses
the need for spontaneity within play and makes a distinction between play that
is rudimentary and play that is directed and properly structured to maximize
results. She believes play has its own
rules and ultimately allows for expression of one’s true potential.
Stuart Brown discusses and identifies
not only various types of play people engage in such as: body play, object
play, curiosity & exploration, social play, imaginative & solo play,
storytelling play and collective play, but also various personal play profiles.
One individual might experience play through competition, while another through
being the class clown, and yet another through storytelling or becoming lost in
a creative pursuit. As convenient as it
would be to believe play could have a one size fits all model, this would be
short sighted and lead to a less effective curriculum
Today, many people engage in play
through video games and interacting with technology. Previously cited article by learning, design
and technology professor at University of Georgia, Lloyd P. Rieber explores
play within microworlds - small but complete worlds people can interact and
“live” within, similar to that of a sandbox for a child or engaging in
multiplayer online role-playing games. He believes that microworlds related to
technology will help provide education for a more technology oriented future.
In Stuart Brown’s online Ted Talk “Play
is More than Just Fun” filmed in May of 2008, he lectures on the importance of
play and echoes how it is underutilized and valued in both society, individual
life and as a science. He first stumbled across the importance of play
while investigating a murder case, where after extensive research, he and his
team came to the conclusion that the leading cause for the attacker’s actions
was an extreme deficit of play. He believes play is fundamentally
necessary and has a biological place similar to that of sleep and dreams,
necessary for survival which can empower and prioritize your life.
A key reason for why engaging in play
has survived natural selection is that playfulness is attractive to women due
to the fact it signals non-aggressiveness in their mates, and for men,
playfulness is attractive because it signals youth and fertility. In addition, they claim playfulness survived
throughout evolution because historically child play mimics adult skills
necessary for survival, thus it prepares the young for adult hood.
As
someone who has lost a child, I refuse to believe for the rest of my life that my
happiness level will never be what it once was. Regardless of being able
to prove it scientifically, I know with conviction from my own experience that
play is the antidote to grief. If one can be with and process their grief
while simultaneously being in a play state of mind, a state of mental fluidity,
transformation, openness and freedom from preconceived doctrines - the grief
can and will transform. The grief will move, integrating into the whole
self. It is not a diminished self, but a wider more expansive self.
Building neural-synapses prone to promote a play state of mind will develop
mental resilience to challenging life events by being able to transform, adapt
to and integrate unexpected challenging circumstances.
Using marmosets as test subjects, Ivan
Norscia and Elisabetta Plagi conclude that play successfully reduces stress and
builds tolerance to future stressor, thus proposing the same could be true for
humans. They observed that play increased most just before feeding time, when
stress and anxiety is highest. In
addition, scratching, a common expression of anxiety and stress for marmosets
was significantly reduced after an intense play session. Although some
theorists believe play can cause stress, the authors of this article believe
their findings lead to support that whatever stress play could promote, the
benefits far outweigh.
The
playful person will thrive and survive over those who are play deficient or
play inept. Another example of this is
in Stuart Brown’s previously mentioned TED talk where he discusses a study of
the effects of play deprivation in rats.
Two groups of rats were raised, one in a play promoting environment, one
in a play deprivation environment. A
pheromone coated cat collar was then dropped into the cages. Over time, the rats which had previously
engaged in play, eventually came out to investigate the threat and reintegrated
into the environment. The rats deprived
of play stayed in their holes and died - every single one. Play is crucial to our ability to survive.
Recent
scientific studies now prove neuroplasticity, the ability for the mind to
change and adapt opens up a whole new conversation in the study of play.
Author and psychiatrist, Norman Doidge, in his book The Brain that Changes
Itself, illuminates the many exciting benefits and discoveries of this
revolutionary neuroscience breakthrough.
Play
is closely linked to a general sense of happiness. Gwen Gordon brings to light
that in the happiness field, one can argue that nature is responsible for one’s
happiness while others argue it is based on an individual’s experience - their
nurturing. Gordon however argues that due to recent neuroscience findings that
the brain is constantly growing and has the ability to adapt and change. One’s
happiness is actually more in our own control than we think. I intend to argue
that if science proves one can change their predisposition for happiness, one
can also change their predisposition to playfulness.
What is your claim about your topic?
Play
is a state of mind. Engaging in play conditioning exercise to develop and
maintain a playful state of mind is not only possible due to recent findings on
neuroplasticity, but also critical to an individual’s happiness and ability to
thrive in the modern and emerging world.
OR
Learning
how the brain creates new neural pathways, in conjunction with a clear
appreciation and understanding of play, will expertly guide the development of
a success play conditioning program vital to the future.
What is your stance on the issue you’re writing
about/ What do you believe about your topic?
I.
Play is a critical trait in our emerging world
A.
The
technology boom has neurologically altered/ inhibited early play development (Rieber)
B.
Promotes
resilience & adaptability (Norscia) (Stuart)
C.
Lead
to greater complex problem solving (Stuart)
D.
Promote
healthy relationships – work (Chang) & romantic (Chick)
II.
Play
is critical to a healthy relationship with your self
A.
Allows
for a “fluid” mind – ability to transform current challenges and perceptions (Self)
B.
Play
state is a state of no judgment (Edmonson)
C.
Egos
cannot exist when in a state of play (Henricks) (Schall)
III.
A
playful state of mind can be taught (Boyd)
A.
Neuroplasticity
supports brains ability to make new connections regardless of age (Doidge) (Gordon)
B.
Repetitive
exposure to positive play experience is like “reverse trauma/ PTSD” (Self) (Levine)
C.
Play
conditioning classes will be a vital to our future (Self)
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