The Serious Need For Play.

'On August 1, 1966,

the day psychiatrist Stuart Brown

started his assistant professorship at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston,

25-year-old Charles Whitman

climbed to the top of the University of Texas Tower

on the Austin campus and shot 46 people.

Whitman,

an engineering student and a former U.S. Marine sharpshooter, was

the last person anyone expected

to go on a killing spree.

After Brown was assigned as the state's consulting psychiatrist

to investigate the incident and later,

when he interviewed 26 convicted Texas murderers

for a small pilot study,

he discovered that most of the killers,

including Whitman,

shared two things in common:

they were from abusive families,

and they never played as kids.

Brown did not know which factor was more important.

But in the 42 years since,

he has interviewed some 6,000 people about their childhoods,

and his data suggest that

a lack of opportunities for unstructured,

imaginative play can keep children

from growing into happy, well-adjusted adults.

Free play,

as scientists call it,

is critical for becoming

socially adept,

coping with stress and

building cognitive skills

such as problem solving.

Research into animal behavior confirms

play's benefits:

ultimately,

play may provide humans (including animals) with skills

that will help them

survive and reproduce.'

[Scientific American Journal March/April 2009]

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