Adults can suffer from play deprivation.

Children seem to have two main jobs: To learn and to play. Preferably at the same time.

They learn through play and ideally they also play through learning.

There's no doubt that if you deprive a child of the opportunity to learn, their chances of having a meaningful, productive and long life are greatly affected.

Many would also agree that time to play is just as important for their development.

If a child is deprived of enough opportunities to play, they quickly become bored, restless, difficult or even destructive. Often rebelling at some point.

There is different types of play: Role Play, Creative Play, Structured Play (group games with rules) and Object Play. There can also be Role Learning, Creative Learning, Structured Learning and Object Learning. And there can be combinations of play and combinations of learning. Finally there can be combinations of play and learning. The possibilities are endless.

Then the inevitable happens; We grow up.

Our opportunities to play and learn become less and less spontaneous or planned. It can start as early as collage or University. Study commitments can easily crowd out play time.

Particularly in a work setting that doesn't allow any opportunity to learn new and interesting things. 

Or no opportunity to play around with different ways of doing the work.

If you're not learning interesting things, you're stagnating, and if you're play deprived, you're disintegrating.

We all need to find our learn/play space. Learn to 'Play' music, 'Play' a role in a play, Play a sport, or play with colour. The world can be your university and your playground.

For the 'being born creative' series (childhood creativity)

You can find Steve at 

www.ineedtocreate.com