Play Across All Spaces: Why the Brain Needs Play and How to Foster Play in Any Context
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2026
Pages: 218
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2026
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Play Across All Spaces is essential reading for anyone who creates, manages, or participates in environments where people gather-from educators and therapists to workplace leaders, community organizers, and caregivers.
Drawing on accessible neuroscience, this book clearly explains how play engages specific brain regions and processes to enhance well-being across the lifespan. Readers will discover not only how play affects the brain as an organ but also how it shapes the mind through relationships, neuroplasticity, and integration. The evidence reveals a profound truth: play is not optional for childhood alone but essential throughout life, in all contexts.
Whether the context is a classroom, clinic, workplace, or home, integrating play creates environments where participants feel safer, more engaged, and more fully alive. For anyone committed to spaces that truly support human flourishing, this book provides the neuroscience-grounded insights and practical tools needed to make that vision a reality.
Dr. Erin M. Casey is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Oklahoma. Her research focuses on play for well-being across the lifespan and examines the neurobiological connections between play, creativity, and development in children, adults, and educators.
Dr. Courtney Beers Dewhirst is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Oklahoma. Her research examines play as an adaptive mechanism essential to child development across diverse contexts, including outdoor environments and family interactions. She specializes in evidence-based teaching practices.
Play Across All Spaces is essential reading for anyone who creates, manages, or participates in environments where people gather-from educators and therapists to workplace leaders, community organizers, and caregivers.
Drawing on accessible neuroscience, this book clearly explains how play engages specific brain regions and processes to enhance well-being across the lifespan. Readers will discover not only how play affects the brain as an organ but also how it shapes the mind through relationships, neuroplasticity, and integration. The evidence reveals a profound truth: play is not optional for childhood alone but essential throughout life, in all contexts.
Whether the context is a classroom, clinic, workplace, or home, integrating play creates environments where participants feel safer, more engaged, and more fully alive. For anyone committed to spaces that truly support human flourishing, this book provides the neuroscience-grounded insights and practical tools needed to make that vision a reality.
Dr. Erin M. Casey is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Oklahoma. Her research focuses on play for well-being across the lifespan and examines the neurobiological connections between play, creativity, and development in children, adults, and educators.
Dr. Courtney Beers Dewhirst is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Oklahoma. Her research examines play as an adaptive mechanism essential to child development across diverse contexts, including outdoor environments and family interactions. She specializes in evidence-based teaching practices.