This volume shows how we play at various ages and stages, and why play is so vital to our wellbeing. Most American adults have little respect for play, for themselves or, increasingly, for their children. Are we losing anything with this attitude? Yes, says longtime clinical psychologist Luciano L'Abate. In a book that has a message for us all, L'Abate presents research showing that play, as one scholar put it, "is not a luxury, but rather a crucial dynamic of healthy physical, intellectual, social, and emotional development at all age levels." The Praeger Handbook of Play across the Life Cycle: Fun from Infancy to Old Age, shows how play and playful activities have developed and changed across recent history, and how their necessity has been the subject of changing cultural and educational views and controversies. The book overviews the history of play, summarizes current research and theory, shows how we play at various ages and stages, and explains why that helps us develop into healthy people—physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

As a primary or an adjunct mental health therapy, written practice exercises have proven an effective, low-cost way for clients to transfer gains made in therapy to the challenges of daily life and relationships. These interactive workbooks expand on earlier self-help and distance writing methods along a continuum of healing approaches, from the proactive and preventive to the therapeutic and rehabilitative. But despite their appeal, large-scale access to high-quality materials hasn’t always been readily available—until now. The Sourcebook of Interactive Practice Exercises in Mental Health gives professionals a library of replicable, evidence-based, clinically robust protocols and workbooks for a broad range of clinical and non-clinical conditions, suitable for individuals, couples, and families. Luciano L’Abate places practice exercises in the context of current mental health and technological advances, offering guidelines for administration, helpful case studies, and caveats for those new to this type of intervention, and features a wealth of complete protocols in these major areas: psychological disorders from the DSM-IV, including depression, anxiety, phobias, and PTSD, couple and family concerns, from intimacy to domestic violence to children’s adjustment to divorce, lifelong learning: assertiveness, emotional competence, social skills, and more, family support skills: preparation for marriage, parenthood, and adoption ́, plus exercises derived from widely-used psychological tests (e.g., the Beck Depression Inventory, the MMPI), behavior lists, and others. Clinical psychologists, mental health professionals, and psychotherapists will find the Sourcebook of Interactive Practice Exercises in Mental Health a therapeutic treasure chest filled with new approaches to intractable issues or unreachable clients, new means of viewing typical problems, even new ways for talk therapy to work with words.

Play takes up much of the time budget of young children, and many animals, but its importance in development remains contested. This comprehensive collection brings together multidisciplinary and developmental perspectives on the forms and functions of play in animals, children in different societies, and through the lifespan. The Cambridge Handbook of Play covers the evolution of play in animals, especially mammals; the development of play from infancy through childhood and into adulthood; historical and anthropological perspectives on play; theories and methodologies; the role of play in children's learning; play in special groups such as children with impairments, or suffering political violence; and the practical applications of playwork and play therapy. Written by an international team of scholars from diverse disciplines such as psychology, education, neuroscience, sociology, evolutionary biology and anthropology, this essential reference presents the current state of the field in play research.

This book examines a seemingly simple and absolutely essential topic: learning how to enjoy every aspect of your life on a daily basis. All of us look for happiness, well-being, and positivity throughout our lives, but for most people these goals are abstract and the processes established to achieve them ambiguous. The Seven Sources of Pleasure in Life: Making Way for the Upside in the Midst of Modern Demands focuses attention upon the concrete, specific, and everyday sources of pleasure that are within the grasp of almost everyone. Prolific author Luciano L'Abate, PhD, ABEPP, examines at all kinds of pleasures, investigating where we find them, why they appeal to us, and what benefits they provide in terms of both mental and physical health. He explains how to increase our sensitivity to everyday opportunities for pleasure, and then gives tangible techniques to focus upon these moments in order to fully experience them. The author employs personal memories from his childhood in Italy, more recent stories from his travels abroad, and the findings of most recent scientific research on the benefits of pleasure-seeking to further illustrate his points.

With the expertise of a body of international contributors from Australia, Canada, USA, UK, Finland, The Netherlands, Italy, Greece and Chile, this handbook explores key in-depth issues in quality Early Childhood Development and Education. Unlike previous publications in the discipline, this title combines research and practice to investigate emotional and social development, wellbeing and mental health, language, cultural environments, as well as the role of parents in a child′s development. It is divided into six key parts: Part I: Emotional Development Part II: Social Development Part III: Play, Development and Learning Part IV: Memory and Understanding Part V: Learning, Language and Literacy Part VI: Executive Functions, Metacognition and Self-Regulation

In Play in Creative Problem-solving for Planners and Architects, "play" is defined, explored and demonstrated as a critical catalyst in creative problem-solving processes. The book defines the current psychological research into play and creative problem-solving, explores the necessary integration of the two, and exemplifies for students and practitioners the use of play in creative endeavors; and the role that play serves in separating linear from creative problem-solving approaches. Play is explored regarding its elements (tools, skills, environment), characteristics (a free activity without failure) and attitude as it relates to and activates the creative process with the focus on urban design, planning, architecture, and landscape architecture. The book re-establishes the whole mind-body thinking process of play as a means of object-learning; to provide designers and planners with alternative ways of design-thinking; and to challenge the over-utilization of digital technologies in creative processes. Creative problem-solving requires an appreciation for ambiguity, uncertainty of outcome, complexity that leads to the discovery of novelty and innovation. The book incorporates examples and exercises in play activities related to the design and planning fields, and exercises related to play-tools and skills for students and professionals. It also defines terms used in play and creativity psychology; provides examples and structure for play and creative problem-solving activities; describes the type and use of appropriate play-tools; contains an extensive bibliography on play and creative problem-solving texts; and provides significant illustrations making it fundamental reading for students and professionals in urban design and planning fields.

In Play and the Human Condition, Thomas Henricks brings together ways of considering play to probe its essential relationship to work, ritual, and communitas. Focusing on five contexts for play--the psyche, the body, the environment, society, and culture--Henricks identifies conditions that instigate play, and comments on its implications for those settings. Offering a general theory of play as behavior promoting self-realization, Henricks articulates a conception of self that includes individual and social identity, particular and transcendent connection, and multiple fields of involvement. Henricks also evaluates play styles from history and contemporary life to analyze the relationship between play and human freedom. Imaginative and stimulating, Play and the Human Condition shows how play allows us to learn about our qualities and those of the world around us--and in so doing make sense of ourselves.