ABSTRACT
Play is important, despite the number of books and articles on the subject, it is still misunderstood. Many people think that play is something trivial, something that children can do when they have finished their work. The author think that play is the work that children do as part of making sense of the world. They look, they touch, they explore and as they do these questions come to them. So they set about trying to find answers to these questions and much of what they do in their search for meaning is through play. So for the author and many of his colleagues, play is a mode of learning. It is serious, purposeful, often sustained, possibly intense, always self-initiated and engrossing. In English people use the same word for the play that children engage in and what people do with musical instruments.
