This weekend I travelled back to Liverpool. During my visit I stopped off at the residential home where my Grandma lives. My Grandma, aged 94, retains a playful side and her sense of humour is as sharp as ever.

 The home she lives in uses daily activities to stimulate the residences. I find this interesting as a lot of the activities revolve around play. The daily activities include arts and crafts, exercise, technology, dressing-up, celebrating sporting events, holidays etc.

 I sat in during the morning exercises; my grandma was competing to get her knees the highest. It’s interesting to see the different levels of participation, from the enthusiastic to the sleeping to the down right stubborn. When my Grandma first arrived at the home she hated the activities and refused to participate, but after 6 weeks she started to join in, a year later she could be leading some of them. But what was that made my Grandma and others want to join in? And why will some residence always refuse? 

This is one of the main motivations behind persuading adults to play, if play benefits us when we are young and when we are older, why are we not playing all the way through our lives? Our brain is design to continue to learn at all ages and one of the best ways we learn is through the medium of play. Another benefit of play when you’re older is the social benefits; instead of sitting alone in front of a television, you’re interacting with others. We are sociable animals and we need that social interaction to stimulate and entertain us. 

If we continue to play throughout our lives, we could actually have a happier and healthier existence. It’s allowing ourselves to play that remains the challenge and unless we start to embrace this form of interaction, we too will refuse to join in when we are older.