Play Development

We've all seen the happiness on the face of a child while playing in the school yard. Or the blissful abandon of a golden retriever racing across a lawn. This is the joy of play. By definition, play is purposeless, all-consuming, and fun. But as Dr. Stuart Brown illustrates, play is anything but trivial. It is a biological drive as integral to our health as sleep or nutrition. We are designed by nature to flourish through play.

Reassuring to parents and educators, Einstein Never Used Flash Cards shows why - and how - to step away from the cult of achievement and toward a more nurturing home life full of imaginative play and love of learning. Here's the message that stressed-out parents are craving to hear: It's okay to play! In fact, it's more than just okay - it's better than drilling academics. After decades of research, scientists and child development experts have come to a clear conclusion: Play is the best way for children to learn.

Drawing from the philosophy of all-time great Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski that what just happened isn’t nearly as important as what is happening right now—your Next Play—and his work with top brands such as Pepsi, Charles Schwab, American Express, Spotify, and Starbucks, this book contains 34 powerfully simple strategies and 35 practical exercises designed to show how reaching the top of your game doesn’t require more. It requires less but better.

The founders of a respected Silicon Valley advisory firm study legendary category-creating companies and reveal a groundbreaking discipline called category design. Winning today isn’t about beating the competition at the old game. It’s about inventing a whole new game—defining a new market...

Baffling and beloved, with the capacity to go from joy to frustration in seconds, young children are some of the most misunderstood people on the planet. Parents and caregivers struggle with these little ones, who are known for their extreme behaviour, from tantrums, resistance, and aggression to separation anxiety, bedtime protests, and not listening. The key to understanding youngsters lies in realizing that their challenging behaviour is not personal, nor is it a disorder or deficit.

What if your biggest risk in life is playing it safe? In Never Play It Safe, bestselling author, award-winning photographer, and founder of CreativeLive, Chase Jarvis, reveals that safety is an illusion—a comforting lie that’s holding you back from true fulfillment and extraordinary success...

The new way to transform a sales culture with clarity, authenticity, and emotional intelligence. Too often, the sales process is all about fear. Customers are afraid that they will be talked into making a mistake; salespeople dread being unable to close the deal and make their quotas. No one is...

The simple way to help your kids face their fears, handle big emotions, and bolster their social skills—from the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Whole-Brain Child and a renowned play therapist “A parenting guide as useful as it is scientifically sound, The Way of Play is a gift...

Game Worlds Unlocked: The Psychology of Play & Design 🎮 Unlock the psychological principles that make games addictive, immersive, and emotionally impactful. 🧠 Explore how player motivation, emotion, and behavior are shaped by thoughtful design choices. 🔍 Discover what keeps players engaged for hours, from challenge curves to flow states. 📖 Break down the elements of compelling narratives, branching choices, and meaningful consequences. 🤝 Understand the role of social dynamics, cooperation, and competition in multiplayer experiences. 💡 Perfect for game developers, UX ...

Free Play is directed toward people in any field who want to contact, honor, and strengthen their own creative powers. It integrates material from a wide variety of sources among the arts, sciences, and spiritual traditions of humanity. Filled with unusual quotes, amusing and illuminating anecdotes, and original metaphors, it reveals how inspiration arises within us; how that inspiration may be blocked, derailed, or obscured by certain unavoidable facts of life; and how it can finally be liberated - how we can be liberated - to speak or sing, write or paint, dance or play.

10,000 Hours of Play transforms the principles of gaming into a revolutionary guide for achieving real-world success. Written by Yu-kai Chou, an internationally acclaimed pioneer in Gamification and Gameful Coaching—and the creator of the Octalysis Framework used by global giants like Google, LEGO, and Uber—this real-life strategy guide introduces six key steps to align your passions, skills, and goals into a winning formula.

In Women Waking Up, Wendy Valentine doesn’t just challenge the outdated narrative of decline and invisibility at midlife—she blows it up and replaces it with a bold, badass manifesto for reinvention. With raw honesty, a wicked sense of humor, and hard-won wisdom, Wendy invites women everywhere to toss aside society’s limiting scripts and step into the most powerful, playful, and purposeful chapter of their lives.

MOM'S CHOICE AWARD WINNER From renowned parent expert Caroline Maguire, Why Will No One Play with Me? is a groundbreaking program that has helped thousands of children struggling with social skills to make friends, find acceptance, and have a happy childhood. Every parent wants their child to be...

This book introduces three essential pillars for interpreting children’s actions, deepening communication, and fostering cooperation. Rooted in developmental insight, it challenges common approaches like punishment, bribes, and threats—offering instead a respectful framework built on boundaries, expectations, and natural consequences.

This compact edition of Florence Scovel Shinn's classic The Game of Life and How to Play It reveals the true you. Your words and thought images are a metaphysical power that, combined with your natural intuitive insights, can bring you prosperity, love, health, and every good thing in life.

Raise calmer, more confident kids—and feel steadier as the adult they rely on. This practical collection pairs play therapy activities with science-backed tools for emotional regulation so you can reduce meltdowns, end power struggles faster, and deepen connection at home, in therapy, or in the classroom.

Good Inside meets Fair Play in this inspiring, real-world guide to fostering independent play in children—both as a vital skill for kids’ development and an essential act for modern parents’ well-being and sanity. “But I’m bored.” Parents constantly hear these three dreaded words...

Today's kids have adopted sedentary lifestyles filled with television, video games, and computer screens. But more and more, studies show that children need "rough and tumble" outdoor play in order to develop their sensory, motor, and executive functions. Disturbingly, a lack of movement has been shown to lead to a number of health and cognitive difficulties, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), emotion regulation and sensory processing issues, and aggressiveness at school recess break.

"A lightning bolt of a book" makes the case for why self-directed learning — "unschooling" — is the best way to get kids to learn (Lenore Skenazy) In Free to Learn, developmental psychologist Peter Gray argues that in order to foster children who will thrive in today’s constantly changing...

Pioneers of Human Behaviour: Donald Winnicott A Gateway to His Life, Theories, and Legacy Donald W. Winnicott transformed how we think about childhood, parenting, and therapy. He showed that play is the birthplace of creativity, that authenticity flourishes in safe relationships, and that being a “good enough” caregiver matters more than being perfect. His gentle yet radical ideas reshaped psychoanalysis, influenced education, and reassured generations of parents that ordinary care is extraordinary. This concise yet powerful volume distils Winnicott’s life and work into clear, ...