The Importance of Early Childhood Play and Why It Deserves Our Serious Attention

Here's some quiet cosmic irony…

Humans are born with a natural sense of play, an ancient biological design feature that predates language, protocols, spreadsheets, and whatever ridiculous bureaucratic force that first decided meetings should last an hour.

 

Play is our original operating system.

Yet somewhere between childhood and our first appraisal, many of us “upgraded” to being Very Serious Hardworking Adults… and unintentionally muted the instinct that makes learning, connection, and imagination possible.

Organizations - even those dedicated to children’s museums, early learning, and community spaces are not immune. Some have become remarkably effective at delivering structured learning while overlooking  - nay forgetting - the sacred truth that underneath it all:

Play is the engine that makes every other form of growth possible.

If you slow down for just a moment, you might feel a quiet tug, a gentle reminder that you weren’t always this serious, and that a more playful, curious version of you is still right there. Right under the surface. Do you feel it?

Children live in a state we gradually forget - a world where imagination is the most beautiful architecture, stories become expansive landscapes, and the ordinary world cracks open into wonder. As adults, we often long for that state without quite knowing how to return. Do you remember that?

Long before neuroscience affirmed it, Heraclitus named this truth: “Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.”

That line is not about children, it’s about us.It invites us into a state of focused joy. In a state where we are fully presence…and engaged in the most authentic way. The very qualities leaders crave in their teams… and in themselves.

Modern science takes his intuition even further.Dr Stuart Brown at the National Institute of Play shares extensively why every intelligent species - from birds to dolphins to humans - play.

Not as entertainment. Not as a diversion. But because play is biologically foundational to cognitive development, emotional resilience, social bonding, creative problem-solving, and adaptability.

Deep play is where imagination becomes a form of consciousness - a place where we remember that we are not here only to manage life, but to FULLY experience it.

And yet, in many organizations, play has become something we design for children rather than something we cultivate within the adults who serve them. We value curiosity, creativity, agility - words that feature prominently in well done strategic plans - while unintentionally building cultures that leave little room for the behaviors that generate them.

But Children notice. They feel the emotional architecture of a space before they ever engage with an exhibit. A culture that is alive with play - behind the scenes as well as on the floor - carries a distinct atmosphere: warmer, more open, more human, more inviting.

And a culture that has lost its spark cannot fully hide behind graphics and programming.

We are living in a moment where childhood is shifting, attention is fragmented, and imagination needs protection.

Our innate Play Instinct, in many places, is undernourished.

This is a leadership challenge. Not a small one - a sacred and serious one.

What if play wasn’t a pleasant add-on but a strategic imperative? What if cultivating a play culture became as essential as financial planning, governance, or operational excellence? What if early learning institutions helped lead a global movement - not only to support children’s development but to restore play as a fundamental human capacity?

Because when we reconnect with play, we reconnect with the part of ourselves capable of awe, creativity, courage, and renewal - the part that refuses to dim its own light. Children show us the way back to this aliveness every single day.

This is not whimsical work. It is evolutionary stewardship.

And it begins with one courageous, quiet invitation: Remembering the seriousness of a child at play.

For a poetic meditation on deep play, you may enjoy this short reflection by Jason Silva – insert link to Sacred Art of Play.

Think: If play is the way children build their worlds, how does your organization honor that fundamental truth and what might transform IF you made play the clearest, boldest signal of how learning truly happens?

Learn more about ways play can support your early childhood development center:

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