Play isn’t Optional, It’s Foundational: The importance of having safe spaces to play.
- Children Today Staff Account
- Jun 5
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 13
By Steven Guzman, Development & Communications Associate
On a quiet morning inside the EcoHouse, a toddler is precariously balancing a wooden block atop a shaky tower, their eyes squinting, focused on maintaining its integrity. Outside, two preschoolers chase each other, their joyful screams filling the air as they play pretend. Suddenly, one trips and falls, and tears begin to fill their eyes. At that moment, their playmate steps in with a few words of comfort, asking, “Are you okay?” They offer a hand to help their friend up and then they continue playing pretend.
These endearing snapshots of childhood may seem simple, but the lessons these children are learning through play are anything but. Hidden within what we may view as simple acts of play, something profound is taking shape: children with the opportunity to play are experiencing the world around them and are beginning to build connections and develop resilience. This rings even truer for children who’ve experienced homelessness, instability, or trauma. For these children, they’re also rebuilding trust, learning to reconnect with their surroundings, and reclaiming a sense of control in what might otherwise be a tumultuous life.
As our broader society begins to recognize the essential role that play has in a child’s development, a clear message is emerging; play isn’t optional, it’s foundational. The chosen theme by the United Nations for this year’s International Day of Play, “Choose Play, Every Day,” then should resonate strongly as a reminder to all of us, from policy makers to parents, that we must make play a daily priority for all children.
However, in recognizing the importance of play, we must also challenge ourselves and ask the question: are we building routines, environments, and communities that truly allow children to play every day?
Why is Play Essential?
Play provides an outlet for children to experience the world around them; one through which they are able to fully lean into and develop their creativity and resilience, and experience joy. Through play, children are able to learn about their environment, improve their learning capability, form relationships, and develop social skills that can support their psychosocial wellbeing and emotional development. Physical forms of play, similar to what our friends at the EcoHouse are engaged in during their playtime, “block building, drawing, running, and jumping, all contribute to the development of fine and gross motor skills,” and help children “develop sturdy brain architecture, [which are] the foundations for lifelong health, and the building blocks of resilience.”[1][2]
For children with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), play is an even more crucial lifeline. This is supported by what childhood development experts have determined to be the core pillars of resilience; developing responsive relationships, strengthening emotional coping skills, and reducing sources of stress and anxiety.[3] In this way, children who have access and opportunities to experience a safe play environment are able to reclaim a sense of normalcy and control, key components of ensuring better outcomes for children who have experienced trauma in the form of homelessness, abuse, or violence.
Global humanitarian organizations have also observed, “for vulnerable children globally facing war, poverty and exploitation, play plays a critical role in helping children to heal from trauma and get back to learning.”[4] Their message aligns with what trauma experts have long emphasized: that providing substantial opportunities for children to engage in play are essential for children who’ve experienced trauma to heal and develop coping skills. [5]
Who Gets to Play? And Who Doesn’t?
Unfortunately, although all children should be entitled to play, the privilege to engage in it is often limited in scope by systemic and socioeconomic lines drawn in the sand that supply some the means to engage in play more so than to others.
Despite its proven benefits, poverty, homelessness, conflict, and other adversities continue to deprive millions of children of safe, regular, opportunities to play. For example, “as a result of historic and contemporary systemic discrimination, parks, playgrounds, and green spaces – the places that support children’s play – are often harder to find in areas where residents have lower incomes and among communities of color.”[6] In this way, children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds often have a harder time accessing safe places to play due to them living in ‘play deserts’ that limit their opportunities. In practice this means that the children who are the most vulnerable and who would benefit the most from play are often the ones with the least opportunity to engage in it.
How Children Today Chooses Play, Every Day
Recognizing and actively attempting to address these inequities, Children Today ensures play is at the heart of daily life within the EcoHouse.
Strategically embedded in the trauma-informed work we do, Children Today embraces a play-centered approach. Our support surrounds the belief that “a safe and nurturing environment where young children can heal, learn, and thrive through play-based learning and individualized attention,” can help provide our children and their families with the appropriate tools and resources they’ll need to overcome challenging situations.[7]
Exuberant Play
For these reasons, teachers at the EcoHouse intentionally foster ‘exuberant play.’ Exuberant, or robust play, “promotes kinesthetic learning [linking] the learning process to physical activity.”[8] Beyond that, “exuberant play promotes the development of children’s gross motor skills and teaches them to channel their energy, learn to take worthwhile risks, and how to navigate their physical and social environment.”[9] Our teachers are careful observers to determine how to best support play, choosing when to stand back, when to let a scenario play out, and when to step in to offer guidance. For children who may be struggling with dysregulation, an inability to control or regulate one’s emotional responses common in children who have experienced trauma, exuberant play provides them the opportunity to reduce stress and foster emotional regulation.
What it Takes to Build a Community that Chooses Play
Resolving inequities that are partly a direct result of the lack of safe spaces to play should be of paramount importance to all of us. In focusing on achieving a diminution of the play gap that exists within our society and local communities, we are actively helping to create an environment in which all of our children can develop into happy, resilient, self-actualized individuals.
Getting there, however, requires all of us. It requires collaboration with policy makers that recognize the importance of play spaces as essential infrastructure, educators that have opportunities to provide children with space and time for play each day, community members who advocate for equitable access to play, and donors and supporters who see the value in investing and empowering our children for the future. Each of us has a role to play, regardless of our zip codes and circumstances, to put children first.
Addressing play inequity is not only about creating more parks or playgrounds but about providing the littlest and most vulnerable members of our society with the opportunity to spread their wings and thrive through play. On this International Day of Play, let’s make the conscious and deliberate choice to "Choose Play, Every Day.”
[1] White, R. E. (2012). THE POWER OF PLAY A Research Summary on Play and Learning. Minnesota Children’s Museum. https://mcm.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/MCMResearchSummary1.pdf
[2] For every child, the right to play. UNICEF India. (n.d.). https://www.unicef.org/india/every-child-right-play
[3] Center on the Developing Child - Harvard University. (2025, March 19). Three principles to improve outcomes for children and families. Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/report/three-principles-to-improve-outcomes-for-children-and-families/
[4] Global News Wire. (2024, March 26). Right To Play and global partners successfully call on the United Nations to put play in the spotlight for two billion children worldwide. Https://Www.Globenewswire.Com/News-Release/2024/03/26/2852521/0/En/Right-To-Play-and-Global-Partners-Successfully-Call-on-the-United-Nations-to-Put-Play-in-the-Spotlight-for-Two-Billion-Children-Worldwide.Html. Retrieved June 2, 2025, from https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/03/26/2852521/0/en/Right-To-Play-and-global-partners-successfully-call-on-the-United-Nations-to-put-play-in-the-spotlight-for-two-billion-children-worldwide.html.
[5] Early Learning and Care Division, BEST PRACTICES FOR PLANNING CURRICULUM FOR YOUNG CHILDREN: The Powerful Role of Play in Early Education 249–249 (2021). Sacramento, CA ; California Department of Education.
[6] Jordan , C. (n.d.). Children & nature network research digest: making the case for children & nature. Www.Childrenandnature.Org. Retrieved June 2, 2025, from https://www.childrenandnature.org/resources/research-digest-play-equity#socio-political-context-of-play-inequity.
[7] OUR APPROACH TO SUPPORT. CHILDREN TODAY. (2025, June 3). https://www.childrentoday.org/
[8] Children Today, Service Snapshot: Fiscal Year 2022-2023 (Long Beach, CA: Children Today, 2023), 4, https://www.childrentoday.org/.
[9] CHILDREN TODAY (2025, June 3)
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