1. The study of play and exploration offers a good starting place because these
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
activities demonstrate the power of intrinsic interest in directing
growth-producing interactions with the physical and social environments.
Because skills improve through repeated encounters with the environment, there
is a steadily increasing need for greater complexity in the environment.
Play is not the same as leisure, nor is it all that children do.
Play is intrinsically motivated and freely chosen or entered into.
As was noted before, leisure may or may not be actively engaging.
They exercise various skills to create an effect on the environment and then
change things to see what happens.
These play patterns speak to the emotional value of play that gives it importance
as a resource for children throughout childhood.
8. First, to the extent that leisure opportunities are made available for play, children
are likely to benefit in the cognitive, social and emotional ways referred to above;
second, activities that are enjoyable and personally expressive are likely to
influence the development of interests in other socially- and age-appropriate
roles.
9. Play activities allow children to express themselves in enjoyable ways, and
enjoyment, itself, is inherently developmental as was noted earlier.
10. In other words, enjoyment can motivate children to try challenging activities in
which they must "work hard" at acquiring new skills.
11. A state of relaxed wakefulness and a trusting attitude may be part of the
openness to experience that is important to the capacity to enjoy leisure.
12. Erikson's (1963) stage model of development would suggest that this feeling is
the best result of the first real developmental issue in life, that of trust versus
mistrust.
13. To call such a primitive emotional condition "leisure" may be a stretch, but the
ability to cultivate a peacefulness about oneself throughout life may well depend
on the earliest parent-child interactions.
14. Frydenberg and Lewis (1993) found that in coping with stress boys tend to get
involved in physical recreation and girls typically turn to others for social support.
15. It is as if leisure, in this case defined as idleness and self-indulgence, is the result
of faulty or improper socialization.
16. Leisure is recognized by many as a valuable resource for cultural innovation,
social solidarity and personal development.
17. Socialization into leisure occurs in large part because of an appreciation of the
potential for socialization through leisure.