ABSTRACT
Obtaining the real data regarding whether the play setting is working or not – an increase in brain size and organisation, an increased ability to roll with the punches, improvements in resilience and optimism, greater mental flexibility in problem solving, the development of cortical maps, and an increase in successful adaptive strategies – is not possible in an ethical and rights based society, so we look for the next best thing. Assuming that these bio-outcomes are anticipated by the organism, the child should experience positive affects when they happen and these should be observable in a number of ways, including what I called mood descriptors in Hughes (2001, 2002) (see below).
