ABSTRACT
The two words ‘play’ and ‘games’ are often used interchangeably and this can cause so much confusion, especially as we say that we also ‘play a game’. The easiest way to be clear about this is that games are created by human beings and they have a set of rules. The famous exception of course is when the game of Rugby was introduced when someone (William Webb-Ellis in 1823) broke a rule, running with the ball instead of kicking it, and the game of Rugby was born! Whereas play can be spontaneous or planned, personal or in groups, and often involves actions that mirror adult activities. So for example children will ‘play at tea-parties’ or ‘play at monsters’; they will also play with things such as puzzles, art materials, dolls houses, sand and water. Something calculated to upset parents is when children ‘play with their food’! If parents could view this as ‘food as art’ then perhaps it would be less stress making.
