Why do adults need play?

I have been researching the advantages of having children learn through play and why this is such an important and successful idea. I was hoping to discover the concepts behind why this works and be able to apply that concept to adults so as to reach the same level of effectiveness, perhaps with a different method. But through my research I realized that all of the same advantages that children gain through play are just as applicable to adults, and in some cases badly needed in today's world! So rather than discovering a concept and applying it in another form, I settled on the idea that adults can benefit through play and getting back in touch with their imagination and interacting with their world.

Here are some of the ideas of why play is so important to the learning process (it should be obvious why adults need this just as much as kids):

• Play nurtures creativity and problem solving
• Play promotes health by building strength and coordination
• Play stimulates the healthy development of children's brains (adults could definitely benefit from further developing their brains... or at least getting used to actually using them!!)
• Play fosters the acquisition of competence and skills and through this promotes healthy self-esteem and self-confidence
• Play provides the context in which caring adults teach children how to behave, how to treat others, and the social conventions of community (the adult world could DEFINITELY use some refreshers on how to behave and treat others!)
• Play provides the opportunity to learn essential social skills -- to take turns, to share and to cooperate (again, adults need refresher courses on these basic principles!)
• Play helps develop friendships and good interpersonal relationships are essential to lifelong success
• Play environments produce natural opportunities to learn self-respect and respect for others
• Play promotes development and development enhances play - creating an upward spiral --> work hard, play hard, work harder, play harder, learn more, etc!

As you can see, adults are in desperate need of some playtime! Fast forward the video below to 1:20 to see some more advantages of learning through play.