The Praeger Handbook of Play across the Life Cycle: Fun from Infancy to Old Age

About this book

This volume shows how we play at various ages and stages and why play is so vital to our wellbeing. Most American adults have little respect for play for themselves or increasingly for their children. Are we losing anything with this attitude? Yes says longtime clinical psychologist Luciano LAbate. In a book that has a message for us all LAbate presents research showing that play as one scholar put it "is not a luxury but rather a crucial dynamic of healthy physical intellectual social and emotional development at all age levels." The Praeger Handbook of Play across the Life Cycle: Fun from Infancy to Old Age shows how play and playful activities have developed and changed across recent history and how their necessity has been the subject of changing cultural and educational views and controversies. The book overviews the history of play summarizes current research and theory shows how we play at various ages and stages and explains why that helps us develop into healthy peoplephysically intellectually emotionally and spiritually.