The Power of Play by David Elkind, Ph.D.

Book Review by Uriah

I think I picked up this book because of my interest in all things related to play, fun and kids. The title certainly caught my interest. The author, who is a Professor of Child Development at Tufts University, wrote this book to help parents appreciate how humor and playfulness contribute to the well being of children and parents as well. After reading this book I found myself more interested and interactive in my own children’s play and also inspired to try new things. I would say it was time well spent. The book uses a developmental perspective to demonstrate how the separate drives of play, work and love complement each other through a child’s major phases of growth. He warns against hyperparenting, overprotection and overprogramming. Dr. Elkind also feels that the increasing uses of technology and “screen play” (i.e. tv, computers, etc.) greatly diminishes our children’s self-directed learning and also the creative, imaginative process of play. The book did not speak much to the use of play in psychotherapy, but he did make some interesting comments on how children utilize therapeutic play on their own to cope with their feelings as well as traumatic and difficult experiences. The author also devoted a portion of this book to talk about, what he terms lighthearted parenting, which incorporates play, work and love in all aspects of parenting. His ideas on this topic are especially interesting to me and I have included some of his insights in the portion above on Parenting That Works. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in how spontaneous, imaginative activities lead to happier, healthier children (which is also the subtitle).

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