Why do kids enjoy playing?
[mme_highlight] Although social play is an amusing activity, its apparent lack of a goal other than having fun is actually fallacious. One of the most prominent characteristics of social play seems to be its high reward value. It seems to be consensual that social play, rather than other social behaviors unrelated to play, is regulated by opioid systems. [/mme_highlight]
Play is essential for children, contributing to the cognitive, physical, social development as well as for their emotional and general well-being. The importance of playing for an optimal development children is reflected in the recognition by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights of playing as a right of every child.
In short, social play is fun. But what explains why kids’ like so much playing? Most research in the subject has been done with animals. Like human children, most young mammals devote a significant amount of time and energy playing together. One of the most prominent characteristics of social play seems to be its high reward value.
What’s the point in playing?
In fact, although social play is an amusing activity, its apparent lack of a goal other than having fun is actually fallacious. Generally talking, playing has many benefits like developing creativity, motor skills and intelligence, helping build confidence and coping with challenges, allowing group work as well as improving physical activity and general health.
Play, being a pleasant activity, leads to the release of substances in the brain that convey a sensation of reward and happiness which is beneficial itself and also in the sense that it makes children take more advantages of the benefits of play for cognitive, motor and social development.
In fact, the neurotransmitter systems in brain implicated in the motivational, pleasurable and cognitive aspects of reward, such as opioids, endocannabinoids, dopamine and noradrenaline, modulate the performance of social play.
In addition, social play helps reduce stress and is a way of maintaining group cohesion.
How much do children enjoy playing?
With the goal to develop physical activity interventions to prevent the excess weight gain in children, a team of investigators, including Howe CA, developed a study to measure the energy expenditure and enjoyment of some children’s games. A list of 30 children’s games was created from previous intervention studies. Children’s enjoyment concerning each game was indicated by pointing to the appropriate facial expression on the Facial Affective Scale (FAS), a 9-point Likert scale of facial expressions ranging from happy to sad. Total medium scores are presented in the box below.
The 5 most appreciated playing games by the children included in the study were:
- Stop and Go: Two teams have their own end zone at opposite ends of the play area and the goal is that players pass the ball (either basketball or football) to reach the end zone, but they cannot move while they are in possession of the ball.
- Dragon’s Tail: Children have scarves in their back pocket (“dragon tail”) and have to steal other kids’ scarves while protecting theirs; if a scarf is they had to complete a task before returning to the game.
- Capture the Flag: The goal of this game is to avoid being tagged in the opposite team area while trying to find and capture their flag.
- Monkey in the middle: five children, one in the middle (“monkey”) and one ball. The goal is to prevent the monkey from intercepting a pass; when this happens, the monkey must switch places with the thrower.
- Sharks and Minnows: one or two sharks tag minnows while they attempt to cross the ocean; last minnow(s) becomes next shark(s).
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Enjoyment by game (from higher to lower ratings, with standard deviation)
| Game | Enjoyment (FAS score) |
| Stop and Go | 8.4 +/- 0.6 |
| Dragon’s Tail | 8.3 +/- 0.6 |
| Capture the Flag | 8.2 +/- 0.6 |
| Monkey in the middle | 8.2 +/- 0.6 |
| Sharks and Minnows | 8.1 +/- 0.6 |
| Pirate´s treasure | 7.9 +/- 0.6 |
| Can´t touch this | 7.8 +/- 0.6 |
| Crazy soccer | 7.8 +/- 0.6 |
| Fox and Hound | 7.7 +/- 0.6 |
| Hibernation | 7.6 +/- 0.6 |
| Couple Tag | 7.5 +/- 0.6 |
| Steal the bacon | 7.5 +/- 0.6 |
| Barker’s Hoopk | 7.1 +/- 0.6 |
| Clean your room | 7.1 +/- 0.6 |
| Fitness Tag | 7.1 +/- 0.6 |
| Treadmill | 7.1 +/- 0.6 |
| Crowns and Cranes | 7.0 +/- 0.6 |
| Eagles and Sparrows | 7.0 +/- 0.6 |
| Great escape | 7.0 +/- 0.6 |
| Hot spot | 7.0 +/- 0.6 |
| I’m a new skunk | 7.0 +/- 0.6 |
| Builders and Bulldozers | 6.8 +/- 0.6 |
| Computer virus | 6.7 +/- 0.6 |
| Mini kick ball | 6.6 +/- 0.6 |
| Dribblers and Strooters | 6.5 +/- 0.6 |
| Cardio course | 6.4 +/- 0.6 |
| Castles | 6.3 +/- 0.6 |
| Domino Relay | 5.9 +/- 0.6 |
| Race Day | 5.7 +/- 0.6 |
| Blob Relay | 5.3 +/- 0.6 |
| Pass the hat | 4.2 +/- 0.6 |
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What happens in the brain during playing?
It is not easy to explain, and even the existing evidence needs further support from studies. As the majority of studies include animals, one has to assume the very likely similarity of humans regarding play behavior in order to interpret results. It seems to be consensual that social play, rather than other social behaviors unrelated to play, is regulated by opioid systems.
With the goal of understanding the brain sites at which opioids affect social play, Vanderschuren LJMJ and colleagues investigated the question with an in vivo autoradiographic procedure o measure changes in brain opioid receptor binding after social play behavior in rats. These changes, which occurred to the opioid receptor binding, are likely to be due to the release of endogenous opioids (produced by the brain).
Interesting significant results were found because of the effect of social playing mainly in two brain locations: the paraventricular nucleus, located in the hypothalamus (a region responsible by the release of many hormones and involved in the control of some behaviors.); the paratenial nucleus, located in the thalamus (region that relays informations to the cerebral cortex and also regulates consciousness).
As shown in the box below, when social play happened, binding to the receptors was increased in the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus, irrespective of duration of social isolation preceding the test. In the paratenial thalamic nucleus, social play decreased opioid receptor binding, in line with other research and supporting an important role for this region concerning the regulation of social play behavior by opioids.
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Summary and Recommendations
- Play is essential for children, contributing to the cognitive, physical, social development as well as for their emotional and general well-being.
- Children do not play “just for fun”. It is known that reward mechanisms conveyed by neurotransmitters in brain are involved.
- The main neurotransmitters research has investigated are opioids, endocannabinoids and dopamine.
- Most research has been doing in mammals, since these, like human children, devote a significant amount of time and energy playing together. It is still intriguing what exactly happens in children’s brains while playing. More research is
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References
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Convention on the Rights of the Child. General Assembly Resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989
- Ginsburg KR; American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Communications; The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics. 2007 Jan;119(1):182-91.
- Trezza V, Baarendse PJ, Vanderschuren LJ. Thepleasures of play: pharmacological insights into social reward mechanisms. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2010 Oct;31(10):463-9.
- HoweCA, Freedson PS, Feldman HA, Osganian SK. Energy expenditure and enjoyment of common children’s games in a simulated free-play environment. J Pediatr. 2010 Dec;157(6):936-942.e1-2.
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