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How do you know play is important to both adults and children?

In my career I have reviewed more than 6000 life histories, looking specifically at a person's play experiences over his or her life. In studying these histories it has become vividly apparent that play is enormously significant for both children and adults. I began thinking about the role of play in our lives while conducting a detailed study of homicidal males in Texas. What I discovered was severe play deprivation in the lives of these murderers.  When I later studied highly creative and successful individuals, there was a stark contrast.  Highly successful people have a rich play life. It is also established that play affects mental and physical health for both adults and children.  A severely play deprived child demonstrates multiple dysfunctional symptoms-- the evidence continues to accumulate that the learning of emotional control, social competency, personal resiliency and continuing curiosity plus other life benefits accrue largely through rich developmentally appropriate play experiences.  Likewise, an adult who has "lost" what was a playful youth and doesn't play will demonstrate social, emotional and cognitive narrowing, be less able to handle stress, and often experience a smoldering depression.

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Sherri L. Smith is our guest blogger during the week of March 9th. If you have any questions for Sherri L. Smith add a comment to any of her posts.

Here is more information about Flygirl:

Ida Mae Jones dreams of fl ight. Her daddy was a pilot and being black didn't stop him from fulfilling his dreams. But her daddy's gone now, and being a woman, and being black, are two strikes against her.

When America enters the war with Germany and Japan, the Army creates the WASP, the Women's Airforce Service Pilots-and Ida suddenly sees a way to fl y as well as do something signifi cant to help her brother stationed in the Pacific. But even the WASP won't accept her as a black woman, forcing Ida Mae to make a difficult choice of "passing," of pretending to be white to be accepted into the program. Hiding one's racial heritage, denying one's family, denying one's self is a heavy burden. And while Ida Mae chases her dream, she must also decide who it is she really wants to be.

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What does it take to pull off a secret double life? How did Clarence King, the celebrated white explorer, scientist and writer, transform himself into a black Pullman porter named James Todd? In my last blog, I raised some of the issues surrounding his racial masquerade. But King's alternative identity involved a class masquerade, as well. How could an Ivy League-educated scientist from an elite Newport family pass himself off as a working man?

I have tried to imagine how King slipped into the persona of James Todd as he crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, leaving his elite midtown Manhattan haunts to join his African American wife and mixed race children in Brooklyn, and later in Queens. Perhaps he slipped into a Pullman porter's coat, or adopted a working class accent (his friends all commented that he was gifted mimic of dialects). Perhaps he emptied his wallet or stashed his nice clothes in the Manhattan hotel where he maintained a quite of rooms. But even so, he would have to remain on guard even after he got home to his wife. Since she did not know his true identity, he would have to lie about where he had been that day, what he had eaten for lunch, what he had done at work. The effort must have been exhausting.