Questions:
- Do you like playing? What’s your favourite game?
- Is playing a vital part of life for you? In what ways is it useful? Does it help you to relieve stress, for example?
- Why is playing so important according to the presenter?
- Do you think playing could help you to work better?
- Do you like the idea of a “wearable meeting”?
Why Do We Play Games?
Vocabulary
to taunt = to try to make somebody angry or upset by saying unkind things about them, laughing at their failures, etc.
All ages, solo play, body play, games, taunting.
sequence = a set of events, actions, numbers, etc. which have a particular order and which lead to a particular result
So I’m gonna take you through what I think is a remarkable sequence.
to tether = to tie an animal to a post so that it cannot move very far
… making a series of photos of these huskies, who are tethered.
predatory = (of animals) living by killing and eating other animals
And from out of stage left comes this wild, male polar bear, with a predatory gaze.
to override something = to be more important than something
A play ballet. This is in nature: it overrides a carnivorous nature and what otherwise would have been a short fight to the death.
And it is a marvelous example of how a differential in power can be overridden by a process of nature that’s within all of us.
to stand the test of time = if something stands the test of time, it remains popular or respected for a long time
And that finding has stood the test of time — unfortunately even into more recent times, at Virginia Tech.
to sensitize = to make somebody/something more aware of something, especially a problem or something bad
And other studies of populations at risk sensitized me to the importance of play.
attuned = familiar with somebody/something so that you can understand or recognize them or it and act in an appropriate way
If we’ve got them wired up with an electroencephalogram, the right brain of each of them becomes attuned, so that the joyful emergence of this earliest of play scenes and the physiology of that is something we’re beginning to get a handle on.
to wiggle = to move from side to side or up and down in short quick movements
If you’re having a bad day, try this: jump up and down, wiggle around — you’re going to feel better.
by-product = a thing that happens, often unexpectedly, as the result of something else
And social play is part of what we’re about here today, and is a byproduct of the play scene.
rough and tumble fight = To have a fight while, usually, rolling around on the ground. Usually only a play fight, similar to lion cubs fighting each other for fun
And rough-and-tumble play is a great learning medium for all of us.
to spin a yarn = to tell tales
… it reminds me of her storytelling and her imagination, her ability to spin yarns at this age – preschool.
to crest = to reach its highest level before it falls again
I think that wave is past, and the play wave is cresting, because there is some good science.
cerebellum – мозжечок
Three-dimensional play fires up the cerebellum, puts a lot of impulses into the frontal lobe …
hardwired = (of a skill, quality or type of behaviour) present when you are born and not changing during your life
In the animal world, if you take rats, who are hardwired to play at a certain period of their juvenile years and you suppress play — they squeak, they wrestle, they pin each other, that’s part of their play.
retention = the action of keeping something rather than losing it or stopping it
Because neoteny means the retention of immature qualities into adulthood.
to give somebody a leg up = to help someone to be more successful
And this gives us a leg up on adaptability.
consummate = extremely skilled, perfect
This is a book written by a consummate player by the name of Kevin Carroll.
confine = to keep somebody/something inside the limits of a particular activity, subject, area, etc./ to keep a person or an animal in a small or closed space
Found that when he looked at a playground out of a window into which he had been confined, he felt something different.
to empower = to give somebody more control over their own life or the situation they are in
And although I think he certainly had the capacity for play — because I do know something about that — he wasn’t as empowered, I think, as he now is by paying attention to what is his own passion and his own inner drive, which I think has its basis in all of us in our play history.
decrepit = (of a thing or person) very old and not in good condition or health
There is our star pupil, this labrador, who taught a lot of us what a state of play is, and an extremely aged and decrepit professor in charge there.
sage = a plant with flat, light green leaves that have a strong smell and are used in cooking as a herb = a very wise person
Some sage and repeatedly furry monks at this place called the d.school designed a meeting that you can literally step out of when it’s over.
to infuse = to make somebody/something have a particular quality
So I would encourage you all to engage not in the work-play differential — where you set aside time to play — but where your life becomes infused minute by minute, hour by hour, with body,object, social, fantasy, transformational kinds of play.