Funny Business

10Get Playing

What makes good, productive play? Well, that’s going to be different for every person involved. Over the years, we’ve observed thousands of kids engaged in play, and although there are certainly many commonalities, and the developmental functions and benefits of play are clear, every play event is different because every child is different. There have been billions of Barbie dolls sold, but when you get past the reality of inert polyvinylchloride, which is what Barbie literally is, every Barbie doll is unique because it’s brought to life in the imagination at a different time by a different person.

By definition because it is unstructured and not always clearly defined, some play is inherently chaotic and non-linear. In the imagination, ...