PLAY AS THERAPY
Key words- play, conventional, unconventional, development, tools, rules, unconscious, conscious, changing with time, self, surrounding, stress, acute stress, stress causes and effects, coping mechanism, negative, positive, age, therapy.
Abstract- The paper talks about Play being a consistent element that is part of our changing life style. In today’s day and age, we have redefine play in a schedule. We don’t realize that it is more than games or activities, more than a defined body movement or mind tester. Play acts as a tool of for development. This paper looks at the relation between play, stress and coping mechanism. The meaning of play and coping mechanism changes with age as we start adapting to our surroundings and learn. The complexity might increase or decrease depending on the individual and many other factors. The paper also states that play acts as therapy as it can be considered a coping mechanism.
Play As therapy
Play is an essential part of our life and there is more to it than what we think. Play is not restricted by age or space and it’s not only about fun. It helps in developing socially and as an individual, coping with the situation, adjust and adapt to our surrounding. Play acts as a coping mechanism that changes its form and complexity as we develop. This paper looks at the relation between play, stress and coping mechanism. The changes that take place as we get older. The meaning of play and coping mechanism changes with age as we start adapting to our surroundings and learn. The complexity might increase or decrease depending on the individual and many other factors. The paper also states that play acts as therapy as it can be considered a coping mechanism.
Play
Play is defines as ‘ an recreational activity without any serious purpose’[1]. There are multiple ways one can perceive and define play. Play is one of the most important and a consistent element to our changing lifestyle. It can also be described as an action, idea or interest a person exercises in their own way and for their own reasons. Play has a very significant role in our life. It is the element that is part of a schedule and is also what breaks the monotony of a schedule. Play benefits us not only physically but also mentally. It is considered to be an important part of one’s developmental stages. It helps us in understanding our surroundings, coping up with situations, adjusting to change, act’s as a distraction and also teaches us to have fun. It is more than a defined body movement or mind tester. Play is a biological, social and psychological necessity that helps in growth, development, and well-being of an individual [2]. It can be considered as a coping tool.
Play and its types
Play can be practiced anywhere and by anyone. Play is integrated in our daily life, some consciously and some unconsciously. One can divide it into two types, conventional and unconventional. The conventional play includes game’s like board games, cards, hide and seek, sports. Conventional play has rules, strategies and a value-added end result. Whereas Unconventional play is something we practice in our day to day life. Tapping, nodding, listening, feeling textures, daydreaming, observing, so on so forth. Things that are visually appealing are also playful in its own ways. There is a notion that play is for kids and not for adults. This notion has changed a bit with the introduction of technology but maybe only by few percent. There are multiple reasons for that, the main reason being the strict schedule and age restriction. But we fail to realize that be it of any age we all are always doing something playful best example is fidgeting. Distraction is a form of play. It breaks the monotony of the situation. The perception of play varies from person to person. Play is subjective in nature and completely depends on an individual’s interests. Some may consider music as play whereas others may say reading, dancing, doodling, fidgeting, observing as play. The idea of play changes with age, as we keep developing. The perception of play is not only affected by self-development but also society, culture, pears, institution.
Changing notions of Play
One can say that the idea of play varies from person to person. It is a subjective matter. But when it comes to the foundation of play it’s the same for all. It becomes subjective as we grow. When we are kids the whole idea of play is to explore, touch, have fun. But as we grow the idea of play changes and differs. Some may consider play as sport, hobbies, some may say it’s a serious event, it’s a learning mechanism, or a cultural tool. What we consider as play elements will also change. Ropes or simple blocks where fun as kids but as we grow we want some-thing more intellectual, complex as our mind has developed and wants something challenging. The idea of play might also change in respect to our surrounding, our culture, the society.
Stress
With our lifestyle at present be it, kids or adults, we all are going through stress. Stress is defined as ‘Our response to an event that disrupts or threaten to disrupt our physical or psychological functioning’ (Baron 2001: 345). Stress can be divided into 6 types Eustress, Dis-stress, Hyper-stress, Hypo stress, Acute stress, and chronic stress. On regular basis, we all go through acute stress. Acute stress is ‘experienced when one is facing instant physical or psychological threats, for a short time period’[3]. For example, work pressure, deadlines, waiting, presentation. Stress affects us mentally and physically. Stress can be considered good but when at the least it helps us in enhancing our performance. But when it exceeds it leads to problems like anxiety, depression, hypertension, and effects the immune system.
Stress is a part of our life be it any age. Be it Young or old one has to face the difficult situation and overcome obstacles. The intensity of the stress is the same for all age groups but the context changes. For example, the young adults will be stressed about career, finance, security, family. Whereas the old will stress about their health, dependency, finance. We tend to have a notion that people younger to us go through less intensity stress is because we have learned to cope with it.
Coping mechanism
‘Coping mechanisms, ways used to manage, adapt or act on external or internal stress.’ As defined by Susan Folkman and Richard Lazarus ‘cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage external or internal demands that can cause stress’[4]. There are 400 to 600 types of coping mechanisms. It can be divided into two types positive and negative. Positive Coping mechanism includes activities like sports, exercise, reading, music, meditation. Negative includes drinking, smoking. It also involves no control over emotion, loud and abusive, smashing things, giddiness.
Negative coping mechanisms might give an instant relief but will be temporary and not beneficial they will lead to more problems. Positive coping mechanisms are helpful in multiple ways, for example, reducing stress, help in adjusting to a situation or surrounding, increase self-esteem and confidence. The coping mechanism (skills) one uses change with age and individual. The complexity of the skills used increases as an individual develops. A child might use scribbling as a coping mechanism or cry when overwhelmed with emotions. Whereas an adult might use writing, music, or doodling as their coping mechanism.
Age, stress and coping
We all go through stress just its differs with age. One of the main reason for this is growth. As we get older we get more mature, learn different techniques, get educated, we are more informed. Stress that is shown and bared by different age groups are, for infants it is the learning stages that causes stress. learning can be stressful for all age groups but as we grow we build our skill to take and store the data easily. But for infants as they are still developing basic skills, movements like walking, speaking, actions, relations and expressing their thoughts it makes it difficult for them to face failures. In such a situation an infant will express their dissatisfaction and stress in different ways like, crying, throwing things, acting stubborn, giving up or even throwing a fit. These are also their coping mechanism. As they are at an age where they can’t really solve their problem all by themselves. They need assistance and help to do so.
As we grow we start learning how to express our emotions, learn problem solving tools, start to identify our surrounding and our self. This is the adolescents, at this stage we are exploring our surrounding, recognizing objects, people so on so forth. We start becoming independent in terms of doing some daily chores. This includes personal hygiene, following some rules and regulation of the society, culture, our instant surrounding. We also start enhancing our motor skills, intellectual skills and memory consciously. Their stressors are developing skills, communication, responsibilities they take for their own actions. At this age their coping mechanisms may include asking questions, wondering around, scribbling, hand gesture play (pretend play), making up stories. This is also the age when they start taking interest in different activities like sports, games, books, craft, TV shows.
The next stage is one of the most stressful stages, teenage. It’s the stage where u get exposed to the outside. It has multiple roles in one’s life one of the biggest is identifying one’s self in the society. What we are, what we want to be, where do we belong and how do we want our personality to be shaped as. It’s not only about answering the above questions but also about coping with external factors like peer-pressure, mile stone in our education, achievement goals, puberty, society and their norms so on so forth. This is the stage where self-space, time becomes the part of the coping mechanism. It’s the stage where we are confused and are trying to solve the problem by our-selves as we are not sure how welcoming others will be. Activities like sports, or certain hobbies like sketching, playing certain games (digital or physical), reading, music become the source of our coping mechanism.
Young adults and adults a stage that’s to do with our future and stability. They are making something of them-selves to sustain and play the role of a provider. Most of them are chasing their dreams. The chase is what cause the stress. At this stage failure is the biggest stress. There is a lot of time bound goals to achieve. The stress causes not only mental issues but also physical. Blood pressure, diabetes, body pain, emotional imbalance, restlessness, depression. This is also the stage where we start restricting our physical activities. The coping mechanisms use at this time are, “Me time”, conversation with close ones, walking, movies (visuals), music, physical activities like yoga, travel, doodling, reading.
Old age the stage where most of the stress is in accordance to health and dependence. Its more about independence and dependence. At this stage the coping mechanisms are conversation, TV shows, community activities, resting, mostly anything that gives a senses of comfort.
Play is a coping mechanism
Play and coping mechanisms are directly related. Play is actions that distracts one’s mind from a, particularly stressful situation. Fidgeting, fiddling, repeating a particular action so on so forth. An individual’s playful actions changes with age and the play becomes a coping tool.
Most of the coping mechanism includes some movements that leads to distraction. This movement (distraction) makes the playful part of the mechanism. The movements differ from simple to complex, minimum to maximum. Movements can be the same at different stages as the mechanism one uses differs from person to person. As kid’s senses help us in making our surrounding playful. Touch, smell, movements, sight (visuals), expressions. As we grow these are still the base reason for playfulness but thinking, problem solving, experiences, learnings get added to them and we mature. Simple repetitive movements like swing in of legs, tapping of fingers, doodling so on so forth symbolizes the play these are unconscious methods. One also uses play consciously as a coping mechanism by playing or doing activities to release stress for example playing chess, drawing, writing, running.
Coping mechanisms are simple and effective and play forms a major part of it. It helps us be it old or young. It changes as we develop and age. Play does not fade away from our life because we are getting old it just changes. We learn new ways to play and this play helps us in coping with situations. Therefor play is a form of coping mechanism and also a therapy.
End notes:
- “Stress and Coping Mechanisms — How the Body Responds to Stressors.” Observation Bias, explorable.com/stress-and-coping-mechanisms.
- Altshuler, J. L., & Ruble, D. N. (1989). Developmental changes in children’s awareness of strategies for coping with uncontrollable stress. Child Development, 60(6), 1337–1349.
- Amirkhan, J. & Auyeung, B., (2007). Coping with stress across the lifespan: Absolute vs. relative changes in strategy. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 28(4), 298–317. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2007.04.002
- D., Janey. “10 Negative Coping Mechanisms People Use to Hide from Their Problems.” Learning Mind. Accessed September 6, 2018. https://www.learning-mind.com/coping-mechanisms/.
- Ernest, Chad. “Why Are Coping Skills so Important?” SUNNY SKY COUNSELING, LLC. September 04, 2014. http://www.sunnyskycounseling.com/blog/2014/9/4/why-are-coping-skills-so-important.
- Sincero, Sarah Mae. “Stress and Coping Mechanisms — How the Body Responds to Stressors.” Observation Bias. November 13, 2012. https://explorable.com/stress-and-coping-mechanisms.
- Sahler, Carr, Olle Jane Z., John E. “Coping Strategies.” Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics 4 (2009).
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[2] https://www.playcubed.co.uk/what-is-play
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