{"id":59,"date":"2012-05-25T12:12:20","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T12:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/?p=59"},"modified":"2012-05-25T12:12:20","modified_gmt":"2012-05-25T12:12:20","slug":"never-too-old-to-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/never-too-old-to-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Too Old to Play"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I came across some fascinating research by Stuart Brown, MD, a psychiatrist who founded the National Institute on Play and is widely known as \u201cthe father of play research.\u201d Studies that he and other researchers have conducted show that play \u2013 defined as any activity that\u2019s \u201cfun, purposeless, and all-consuming\u201d \u2013 isn\u2019t just kid stuff. Rather, play is essential to wellbeing<em> throughout life.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll certainly vouch for that. Over the years, I\u2019ve learned that, once I start feeling overwhelmed by all the \u201cto do\u201d items on my lists, it\u2019s time to take a break and do something that doesn\u2019t serve any purpose other than engaging and making me feel happy. Things like golf, going to orchid shows, getting together with \u201cgal pals,\u201d discovering new neighborhoods, competing with my husband on the Wii, and lately, scoring on \u201cAngry Birds.\u201d \u00a0In short, I play!<\/p>\n<p>This year, the U.S. Administration on Aging (AoA) &#8212; which has designated May \u201cOlder Americans\u2019 Month\u201d \u2013 has come up with a particularly fun theme for the month: \u201cNever Too Old to Play.\u201d To celebrate, we at the Foundation for Health in Aging hope you\u2019ll join us in celebrating this important month \u2013 by playing. \u00a0With this in mind, we\u2019d like to share some of our favorite ways to play, as well as some of the terrific suggestions for play that the AoA recommends.<\/p>\n<p>These suggestions for play are appropriate for families with older members; residents of long-term care facilities and those who care for them; and you and your neighbors, of all ages:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Organize an intergenerational family Wii bowling tournament.<\/li>\n<li>Play Charades, chess, Scrabble, Uno, Pictionary or other favorite board games.<\/li>\n<li>Invite your neighbors to a kite-flying contest or croquet tournament at a nearby park.<\/li>\n<li>Help organize or contribute to a block party complete with games of chance.<\/li>\n<li>Paint a community mural (with permission from your local representatives, of course).<\/li>\n<li>Plant something \u2013 whether in a pot on your windowsill or in a large community plot \u2013 gardening connects us with living, growing things and is fun and therapeutic.<\/li>\n<li>Make music \u2013 sing in the shower, play an instrument alone or in a group, or just clap your hands to a song on the radio.<\/li>\n<li>Take a walk and smile and say hello to passersby \u2013 it\u2019s contagious and can generate some playful conversations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ready?<\/p>\n<p>Set?<\/p>\n<p>Play!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I came across some fascinating research by Stuart Brown, MD, a psychiatrist who founded the National Institute on Play and is widely known as \u201cthe father of play research.\u201d Studies that he and other researchers have conducted show that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/never-too-old-to-play\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}