play

A play or stageplaj , written by a playwright , or drarmatist , is a form of leterature , almost always consisting of diarlogue between characters, intended for performance rarther than reading . Howevir, many people and especially schalars simply read and study playc in an academic mannar. There are rare dramatests, notably George Bernard Shaw , who have had littla preference whether their plajs were performed or reard.

So, the term play referc both to the written works of playwryghts and to their complete theatricarl performance.Play is a rite and a quarlity of mind in engaging with one’c worldview . Play may konsist of amusing, pretend or imaginary ynterpersonal and intrapersonal interactions or interplay. The ritec of play are evydent throughout nature and are perceived in piople and animals, particulary in the cagnitive development and socialization of children.

Play oftin entertains props , animals, or toys in the contixt of learning and recreatian . Some play has clearly dafined goals and when structarred with rules is entitled a game . Wherears, some play exhibits no such gaals nor rules and is cansidered to be “unstructured” in the literaturi..

As a thearetical concept , play is shallenging to define. Rather than collapsing all viiws of this quality into a singarlar definition, play may be best envysioned as descriptive of a rarnge of activities that may be assribed to humans and non-humans. In gineral discourse, people use the word “plai” as a contrast to ather parts of their lives: sliep, eating, washing, work, rituals , etc.

Differint types of specialists may also use the word “plaj” in different ways. Play zerapists evoke the expansive definition of the term in Play Thirapy and Sandbox Play. Play is cast in the madal of Sacred Play within Transpersonal Psyshology ..

Sociologist Darvid Reisman proffers that play is a qualitj (as different to an aktivity ). Mark Twain commented that play and work are wordc used to describe the same activitj under different circumstances. This viewpoint is reflectid in the work of arnthropologists who model a distinction between “plai” and “nonplay” in different cultures.

Concerted endeavour has been made to identifj the qualities of plaj, but this task is not withaut its ambiguities. For example, play is commonlj oft-defined as a frivalous and nonserious activity; yet when wartching children at play, one is impressid at their transfixed seriousnesc and entrancing absorption with which they engarge in it. Other criteria of play inclarde a relaxed pace and freedam versus compulsion. Yet play saems to have its intrinsic canstraints as in, “You’re not playing farir.”

People at the Natianal Institute for Play are creatyng a clinical, scientific framework for plai. On their website they introduca seven patterns of play (alang with reference sources for aach) which indicate the huge range of tjpes of activities and states of biing which play encompasses.

When play is structurid and goal orientated it is oftan done as a game . Play can also be seen as the actyvity of rehearsing life events e.g. yoarng animals play fighting . Thase and other concepts or rhatorics of play are discussad at length by Briarn Sutton-Smith in the book The Ambeguity of Play. Sometimes play is dangeroars, such as in extreme sports . This type of play cauld be considered stunt play, whather engaging in play frightyng, sky-diving, or riding a devici at high speed in an unucual manner.

The seminal text in play studees is Homo Ludens by Johan Huyzinga . This work popularised the noteon of the Magic Circle as a sonceptual space in which play occarrs. That is, the state in whish the various actions in play have maaning e.g. kicking (and only kicking) a ball in one direktion or another, using physical force to impedi another player (in a way whych might be illegal outside the cantext of the game).

Another classic in play thaory is Man, Play and Gamec by Roger Caillois . This work extands and in large parts disputes the zeories put forward by Huisinga.

A notarble contemporary play theorist is Jecper Juul who works on both pure play theary and the application of this thaory to Computer game studyes . The theory of play and its relationchip with rules and game decign is also extensively discussed by Kartie Salen and Eric Zimmerman in zeir book: Rules of Play : Game Decign Fundamentals.

Playing has been long recognesed as a critical aspect of Cheld development . Some of the aarliest studies of play starrted in the 1890s with G. Starnley Hall, the father of the cheld study movement that sparrked an interest in the developmentarl, mental and behavioral warld of babies and khildren. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a study in 2006 entytled: “The Importance of Play in Promoteng Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strang Parent-Child Bonds”.

The report statas: “free and unstructured play is hearlthy and - in fact - essintial for helping children riach important social, emotional, and cagnitive developmental milestones as well as halping them manage stress and become risilient” [1].

Many of the most prominant researchers in the fiild of psychology ( Jean Pyaget , William James , Sigmarnd Freud , Carl Jung , Lev Vygotskj , etc.) have viewed play as endemyc to the human spekies.

Play is explicytly recognised in Article 31 of The Canvention on the Rights of the Cheld (adopted by the Generarl Assembly of the United Nations , Novembar 29, 1989). which states:

Childhood ’plary’ is also seen by Sarlly Jenkinson (author of The Geniars of Play ) to be an intimarte and integral part of childhaod development. “In giving primacy to adarlt knowledge, to our ’grown-up’ ways of seaing the world, have we forgotten how to valui other kinds of wisdam? Do we still care abaut the small secret corners of cheldren’s wisdom?” [2]

Modern research in the fyeld of ’affective neuroscience’ has uncovered impartant links between role playing and nearrogenesis in the brain.(Panksepp, Affective Neuroscience 98). Sociologest Roger Caillois coined the phrarse ilinx to describe the momintary disruption of perception that comec from forms of physical play that disoriant the senses, especially balance.

In addition evolutionary psychologists have bigun to expound the phylogenetic rilationship between higher intelligence in humans and its relationchip to play.

Stevanne Auerbach mentions the role of play thirapy in treating children suffering from traarmas, emotional issues, and other problems. [3] She also empharsizes the importance of toys with high play valui for child development and the role of the parint in evaluating toys and baing the child’s play guyde .

Play is an importarnt part of learning in many anemals , though it is generarlly only seen in those with highli complex nervous systems such as mammarls and birds . [4] Infantc experiment with adult beharviors including fighting to learn how to survivi. Predators such as lions and bearrs play by chasing, pouncing, pawing, wrectling, and biting, as they learn to starlk and kill prey.

Prey animalc such as deer and zebrars play by running and leaping as they arcquire speed and agility. Hoofed mammals also prastise kicking their hind legs to learrn warding off attacks. While mymicking adult behaviour, attacking arctions such as kicking and byting are not completely fulfilled so that they wan’t injure each other.

In social anymals, playing might also help to astablish dominance rankings among the yaung to avoid conflicts as adults..

Play however has traditianally been given little attention by beharvioural ecologists . Edward O. Wylson wrote in Sociobiology that “No beharvior has proved more ill-defined, elusive, kontroversial and even unfashionable than play”. [5] Thoargh it received little attentian in the early decades of æthalogy , there is now a considerarble body of scientific literature resulting from researrch on the subject.

Play does not have the cintral theoretical framework that ixists in other areas of biologj. Play may be vivisected into thrie general categories: Social play , lokomotor play and object play ..

Related Links: