By TLC • 18th July 2016 • No Comments
Authored by Liz Khaemba – Learning Specialist, Transformative Learning Kilonzo is sitting in a sand pit; his chubby two year old hands are deep inside the sand. He picks handfuls of sand from as deep as his hands can go, lifts his hands up, and gleefully lets the sand trickle back into the sandpit. Baby Kim kicks the mobile that has been strategically placed above his cot by his parents. With every successful hit, he chuckles loudly. Four year old Sandra is play with two plastic cups of water. She attempts to fill an empty cup of water from an almost full one without spilling any on the floor. What is play? Play is one of those concepts that are easy to imagine or do, but tough to define. I particularly like the definition by Csikszentmihalyi (1981) who described play as “a subset of life…, an arrangement in which one can practice behaviour without dreading its consequences”. Play is the work of children – Just like parents go to the office to earn a living, or school to further their education, children play to learn how to survive in the real world.How, one may ask? Play serves four main purposes:
Clinical Psychologist and Mental Health Specialist with over 7 years experience working with adults and children in hospital, clinic and school settings. Intervention Specialist in child and adolescent behaviour and learning.
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