Animals and Play

Stuart Brown’s TED talk showed me how important play is.  He uses animals a lot in his study of play. Play comes as early as infancy, when a mother and baby share those moments of play and are filled with joy. When someone does not have the right level of play in their lives they tend to not be able to solve problems. Thats more evidence on why play is needed to live a healthy and successful life.  In the case of the Charles Whitman massacre, there was a study that was ended with his lack of play being the reason for the murders.Stuart Brown said “The basis of human trust is developed through play signals”. The importance of play in people is overlooked as we become adults which is unhealthy.Stuart Brown uses a lot of pictures with animals as evidence for his argument.I remember one picture showing a polar bear playing with a husky, the state of play eliminated all forms of hostility towards one another. The pictures he shows expresses how people look when they are in the act of playing and how it positively affects us. He used a case study with rats and the younger more playful rats were noted to survive while the others died. Stuart Browns presentation was given with so much evidence that theres no way you can ignore it if you actually watch it.

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