ABSTRACT
Thinking about play in the context of life-span human development requires one to examine play not only in childhood and adolescence but throughout adulthood as well. Although scholars disagree on whether the play of children and leisure of adults have the same meanings, and, hence, whether they can even be compared, a life-span perspective would suggest that childhood play shapes later-life leisure and later-life leisure shapes childhood play
While theories of human development across the life span have roots in several different models or philosophies of human growth and behavior, such as mechanistic, organismic, contextual, and constructionist (Cavanaugh, 2004; Gubrium & Holstein, 1999; Lerner, 1998), a number of assumptions are common to life-span and life-course perspectives. Two of these assumptions are of special interest: (1) Development occurs continually from conception to death, and (2) development occurs in the interaction of internal (biological and psychological) and external (sociocultural and historical) factors and forces. Situating play in the context of life-span human development suggests that the forms and meanings of, and opportunities for, play must be conceptualized as dynamic. Play changes across time(s) as individuals construct, produce, and interact within their society, culture, and historical context.
