Play Time?

Written by Clare Caro

Play-time?

After years of creating spaces for play to unfold, slowly, something has come to light; when a child feels safe, the play is peaceful and fun. It can be exciting and thrilling yet never crosses the line into stress or states of distress.

So there I was the other day, walking along the street. When I could hear playtime at a local school nearby, I could hear yelling and screaming, a huge commotion of sound. I remembered back, the feeling of being 'let out', being able to move and have a voice. I remembered the yelling over others to be heard, the stress released and the relief of being out in the open for a short period of time.

As I listened to the difference between squeals and screams, to voices fighting to be heard, I realised this kind of "play-time" was not peaceful, or flow-state, or forging connections to the Pre Frontal Cortex. This play-time was a pure expression of stress release.

We can see and hear with a trained eye and ear to differentiate between flow-state play and stress-release play.