Citing Stuart Brown, a Stanford psychiatrist and producer of a PBS series on play he points out that "creative achievers such as Nobel laureates virtually all had high amounts of play in their early lives". Brown points out that, play, is directly related to the development of optimism and a lack of play is associated with addiction, anxiety, and other disorders.
One of my favorite Brown quotes is that “The opposite of play is not work,” he pointed out. “It’s depression.”
Since research indicates that children are experiencing far less outdoor play it seems wise to heed Brown's concern over the lack of outdoor creative, unstructured play as a means of imagining and conceptually building structures of possibilities. Who would want anything less for America's children?
Complete Inspiring Others Play blog post.