The Effect Of Play On Children’s Health

A new review looked at play and children’s health.

“This was a scoping review exploring peer reviewed literature from the past 10 years in order to examine what it can tell us about the connection between play and children’s health in healthcare settings,” review author Kelsey Graber told us. We hoped to better understand recent and relevant evidence that might demonstrate why we should utilize and support the integration of play into a more holistic view of children’s healthcare.”

The researchers anticipated studies would demonstrate that play can help to reduce negative emotions and experiences associated with children’s healthcare, such as anxiety, pain, and fear; as these results have been reported in multiple studies in the past and there is a growing evidence base alluding to this association.

“This research was commissioned by the Starlight Foundation – a charity which, like our research centre (PEDAL), is passionate about improving children’s healthcare and about the importance of play in children’s lives,” Graber told us. “Play has definitely become more and more integrated into children’s healthcare in recent decades and it is now more a part of that picture than ever before.” 

Play is actually recognized as a right of childhood by the UN among others and yet despite this, play is too-often a drastically under-resourced aspect of the healthcare experience and undervalued as part of children’s holistic health. 

“The idea of this report was to gather all the evidence about what play achieves in children’s healthcare and under what conditions and make it accessible to anyone with an interest in this topic, partly in the hope that we can start to build on the foundational improvements that have occurred in recent years,” Graber told us.

The research team conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed literature from the past 10 years to answer the research question: What does recent research reveal about the connection between play and children’s health in healthcare contexts?

The team identified 127 relevant papers from the past 10 years. These studies led them to generate key themes that helped us to answer the question about how to understand the connection between play and children’s health in healthcare contexts. 

“We can think of this as five dimensions of the relationship between play and children’s healthcare, or five ways in which play supports children’s healthcare,” Graber told us. 

The areas are reducing stress and discomfort during medical procedures.

“Play alleviates stress and discomfort associated with procedures and treatments, enabling children to receive necessary healthcare with reduced distress,” Graber told us.

Another area is expressing and managing emotions. Play addresses children’s mental health and wellbeing alongside physical healthcare, promoting a sense of calm, relief, or respite while also fostering a capacity for coping and emotional expression.

Another dimension is that play fosters children’s dignity and agency. 

“Play provides opportunities for children to be in control, to build confidence, and to be actively engaged in a setting where choice and independence are often limited,” Graber told us. “Play also builds connection and belonging, contributing to facilitating connection and relationships in healthcare environments, which can be otherwise isolating and overwhelming for children.”

And lastly, play preserves children’s sense of childhood as play is vital in enabling children to retain a sense of self beyond their identity as patients, helping them experience elements of childhood amidst the constraints of healthcare.

“We were surprised to see such widespread, global recognition of the importance of play in paediatric healthcare settings,” Graber told us. “This is a topic that is gaining traction and this report highlights a timely opportunity for the UK to be a leader in holistic, person-centred paediatric healthcare.”

The researchers believe the report compiles evidence which, together, makes a comprehensive case for how play humanizes the healthcare experience. It also aligns with an evolving understanding of health as more than the absence of illness. 

“At a time when the UK is consulting on its policy of health and healthcare ahead of a new 10-year health plan for England, we are in the midst of an opportune moment to integrate and fully support the distinct inclusion of play as a critical aspect of delivering the best possible healthcare to children and families around the nation,” Graber told us.