#2. What Exactly Is Play? - by Peter Gray

A REASON sometimes given for the relative paucity of scientific research on play is that the concept is difficult or impossible to define. That’s a poor excuse, in my opinion, but I agree that a scientific investigation of anything must start with a shared understanding of just what it is we are investigating. Like many English words, “play” can have various meanings. The question here is not “what is the proper definition of play,” but “what do I and most other play researchers mean by play?” How do we identify the category of activity we wish to study? I have defined play previously in several publications, including in an invited Scholarpedia article, an academic article on why play is such a powerful vehicle for children’s learning, and my book Free to Learn. Here I will repeat some of what I’ve previously written, now oriented toward laying the groundwork for our future in-depth discussions of the roles of play in human evolution, child development, culture, and daily life. In the

A REASON sometimes given for the relative paucity of scientific research on play is that the concept is difficult or impossible to define. That’s a poor excuse, in my opinion, but I agree that a scientific investigation of anything must start with a shared understanding of just what it is we are investigating. Like many English words, “play” can have various meanings. The question here is not “what is the proper definition of play,” but “what do I and most other play researchers mean by play?” How do we identify the category of activity we wish to study? I have defined play previously in sever