Home - What is Play?
Children have described play as:
'Playing is the best thing in the world!'
'Playing is what I do when people stop telling me what to do'.
"Play can be fun or serious. Through play children explore social, material and imaginary worlds and their relationship with them... By playing, children learn and develop as individuals, and as members of the community" - New Charter for Children's Play, Children's Play Council 1998.
Trying to describe play is like trying to describe love, it means different things to different people, and has been debated by philosophers and academics for centuries. In the last century David Lloyd George stated that 'play is a child's first claim on the community' (1926), and play gained wider recognition under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in which Article 31 enshrines the child's right to play.
Best Play, What Play Provision Should Do For Children tells us 'Play can be fun or serious ... . By playing children learn and develop as individuals and as members of the community' and goes on to identify seven objectives for play and list fifteen different play types. (NPFA 2000) A more academic approach to play is taken in the eight Playwork Principles, which define play as a biological, psychological and social necessity, fundamental to the healthy development and well being of individuals and communities. (Play Wales 2005).
More recently the Children’s Play Council describes play as being intrinsic in human development “From babyhood children use play to promote their own learning; they do not have to be persuaded into playing. A playful orientation seems to be part of childhood for the young of all mammals, of which human beings are a part. Children's continued play supports all aspects of their development”. Children’s Play Council Factsheet ‘What is Play’ 2006.
All of the above underlines the importance of play, and its influence on the well being and development of children in London today, and for the future of its communities, but miss something of the essence of play. Inclusive Play captures the joy of play in its description of play as 'deeply serious or light as air....loud, abrasive, rude, smutty, hilarious, gentle or tender. It can fully absorb the whole attention of a child or of a group of children and yet can also be frivolous, throw-away or fleeting. It can be dangerous, dark and alarming. It can look like play and not be play, or vice versa.' (Casey 2005)
