It's a long time since I wrote about Play.
I've let my eye come off the ball and been distracted by the distress families get into and been doing most of my work around that; Parenting Skills really, the same as lots of other people.
I recognise that this is very important, but it's not my speciality; not my passion.
Play is my passion, in all it's forms.
It has the ability to transform lives in absolutely magical ways and it's what I should be doing.
I thought the grey pall which had descended over my life was because of the grey winter light, but actually
it was the lack of Play in my life, which feels the same as a lack of light/lightness/enlightenment.
I know there are many ills in society, which cause depression, but I wonder if the lack of Play in people's lives is a major reason.
Recent research shows that the trance-like state children enter when they're involved in creative Play is what enables much of the brain's development. It's necessary. That's why children can be so hard to distract from their imaginary games.
If they don't get the opportunity to Play in that way; in that state, certain aspects of brain development simply don't happen.
Conversly; for very young children, watching TV can actually prevent certain aspects of brain development. It has been shown that the quickly moving, brightly coloured images are too much for small children's brains to follow, especially since they're not real things, just a collection of moving, coloured dots. Children's brains are not formed enough to make those dots represent anything. They are however, highly addictive to them, very stimulating.
I'm not saying TV is evil, but too much of it can be damaging to small children's brain development.
The good news is that taken away from the TV and given the opportunity to Play naturally and creatively, brains can catch up on the development they have missed.
Even damaged adult brains can heal.
There is so much exciting research on brains at the moment; brain science is moving on so rapidly and it's possible to find out all sorts of amazing things about the brains of living people.
The brains of traumatised Vietnam Veterans in America have been studied and it has been shown that if these people are able to enter the same kind of trance-like state children enter when theyr'e absorbed in creative, imaginative Play, they are able, eventually to recover from their trauma. Previously, it was believed that the damage to their brains was permanent!
It doesn't matter whether they enter that state by meditating, Playing with toys, sand or water, painting, dancing, or writing about their experiences; all these things work, because it's the state which is important; it's Playing which is important.
It's that absorbed state that can drive parents crazy especially if you're trying to get your children to get dressed or get out of the house to go to school or nursery.
Knowing this won't help you be on time to appointments, but it may help you feel differently about the reason.
Your children have been doing very important work.
That's magic.
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