My Connections to Play

"Play is our brain's favorite way of learning."
-Diane Ackerman, Contemporary American author

"Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity."
-Kay Redfield Jamison, Contemporary American professor of psychiatry

Essential play items for my younger self:

Barbie was the most essential play item for my younger self, I played with barbies every day most of my childhood. Barbies allowed me to use my imagination and come up with any scenario that I wanted to play.
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The next essential play item was my American Girl Doll if I wasn't playing with barbies, I was playing with American Girl Dolls.
(https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fagplaythings.com%2FHistoricals%2FKirsten%2FKirstenDoll.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fagplaythings.com%2FHistoricals%2FKirsten%2FKirsten1854.html&tbnid=gR8yYldF5n0DRM&vet=12ahUKEwiaw6qJjLvoAhVFaKwKHaROA24QMygVegUIARCBAQ..i&docid=V0O_Cu7CJWIi6M&w=250&h=250&q=american%20girl%20doll%20kirsten&ved=2ahUKEwiaw6qJjLvoAhVFaKwKHaROA24QMygVegUIARCBAQ)

People supported my play by not interrupting my play, my family let me take over my living and make it barbie central. They encourage me to play with my toys and dolls, I was the youngest, so I think it was the easiest way to keep me entertained. They also allowed me to go to friends' houses or invite them over to play with my dolls. There were so many times where my living became a Barbie town with my best friend, and we would play in there for hours. They would just step over our town to get to the couch so that they could watch tv, but happily let us continue playing.

I think that play is different from when I was younger because technology is much bigger now, children get into technology at younger ages now. When I was younger technology was around, but a young child did not have a smart device, I didn't get my first smartphone until I was in high school. My hope for younger children and play is that they actually use and explore play and not just technology.

Play has had a big impact on my role in life, I use to pretend that my dolls were teachers, and now I am a teacher. I still like coming up with imaginary situations and playing them out in my head, but I think play as a young child definitely helped make me who I am today.