Volume 17, Number 3

Published 2025

Editors' Note

The last issue of volume 17 of the American Journal of Play begins with an interview of the distinguished psychologist David Elkind. He recounts his career as a clinician, academic, and author while he also discusses the importance of play in our lives. Also in this issue, Doug Maynard, Lars Ellwanger, Lucia Daher, and Michael Jagacki explore the phenomenon of adult play guilt, or the negative emotions associated with the perception of being unproductive while engaging in play. Then Pete King uses the theory of the play cycle to examine the role of adults in play-based learning. And next, Jess Uhre Rahbek introduces the playful-tension model, or a new theoretical concept to harmonize the gap between general play theory and its actual use in designing playthings. Finally, Kaylee Laub and Earl Aguilera discuss how using playable fictions and analog game design can help engage middle school students in discussions about climate change and related areas of scientific exploration.

Interviews

Hurried Children and the Power of Play: An Interview with David Elkind

Best known for his parenting books The Hurried Child, All Grown Up and No Place to Go, Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk, and The Power of Play, David Elkind is currently professor emeritus of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Elkind’s bibliography now numbers over five hundred items and includes research, theoretical articles, book chapters, and twenty-two books. He is a member of many professional organizations and is a past president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). In addition to having been a consultant to state education departments and government agencies, Elkind lectured extensively across the United States, Canada and abroad. Key words—child development; childhood play; Jean Piaget; The Hurried Child

Articles

Play Guilt Experiences Among College Students: A Grounded Theory Investigation

Doug Maynard, Lars Ellwanger, Lucia Daher, and Michael Jagacki

Using a grounded theory method, the authors explore the phenomenon of adult play guilt, or the negative emotions associated with the perception of being unproductive while engaging in play. They interviewed twenty-four emerging adult undergraduate students about feeling guilty when contemplating or engaging in play. The authors found that participants often experienced guilt as an internal voice urging them to do something other than playing, especially when their academic workloads were heavy. Guilt struck at different times (before, during, and after play) and could prevent play, or cut it short, or reduce its pleasure. Participants felt less guilt when they conceptualized their play as productive, or beneficial, or as a reward for hard work. The authors conclude with suggestions to improve the understanding of adult play and its import for healthy and fulfilling lives. Key words: adult play, emerging adults, college students, play and guilt, productivity, well-being

Play-Based Learning and the Play Cycle: A Consideration of the Adult Role in the Process of Play

Pete King

The author looks at play-based learning as a concept that supports the holistic development of children, defining such learning as a continuum of a child-directed, collaborative, and adult-directed play and discussing the role of adults on this continuum. King introduces into the discussion the theory of the play cycle and reviews tensions in play-based learning between policy, practice, and the interpretation of play, using the play cycle and adult roles in it to focus on the process of play rather than on its outcomes, which also contributes to a developing understanding of play-based learning itself. Key words: adult role in play; play-based learning; play cycle; play cycle observation method; playwork

Introducing the Playful-Tension Model: Putting Play Theory into Practice

Jess Uhre Rahbek

The author introduces the playful-tension model, a new theoretical concept, to harmonize the gap in play design between general play theory and its actual use in designing playthings. By synthesizing a broad selection of general play theory into a single theoretical concept, the playful-tension model accentuates the delicate interplay of what he calls “handleability” and “unhandleability” as a primary concern for play designers. He asserts that the contribution of the playful-tension model lies in its ability to unify the complex and scattered landscape of play studies into a high-level middle ground metatheory that empowers play designers and inspires them to a more deliberate practice. Key words: handleability; intermediate level knowledge; metatheory of play; play design; play theory; playful-tension model; toy design; unhandleabilitry

Using Playable Fictions and Board Game Design to Teach Climate Change in a Middle School Science Classroom

Kaylee Laub and Earl Aguilera

The authors argue that playable fictions and analog game design can be an effective way to engage students in discussions about climate change and related scientific areas of exploration. They offer the example of a middle school climate science education unit grounded in the design, analysis, and play of board games and card games based on a study of middle school students in a workshop they conducted. They aim to help guide and inspire educators interested in the complex thinking involved in structured play. Key words: board games; game design; learning play; playful learning; tabletop games

Book Reviews

Celia Pearce, Playframes: How Do We Know We Are Playing

Talmadge Wright

Audun Kjus, Jakob Löfgren, Clíona O’Carroll, Simon Poole, and Ida Tolgensbakk, eds., Adventures in the Play-Ritual Continuum

Simon J. Bronner

Lakisha R. Lockhart-Rusch, Doing Theological Double Dutch: A Womanist Pedagogy of Play

Deja Wilson

Kristen Day, I’m Not Getting Them Ready for Kindergarten: Breaking Tradition in Early Childhood Education

Vivien L. Geneser

Elizabeth Goodenough and Marilynn S. Olson, eds., What the Presidents Read: Childhood Stories and Family Favorites

Elizabeth Gargano

Premeet Sidhu, Marcus Carter, and José P. Zagal, eds., Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons

Mirek Stolee

Kelly Clancy, Playing with Reality: How Games Have Shaped the World

Allen Kempton

Contributors

Kaylee Laub is a PhD. candidate in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a former middle school science teacher. Her research explores creative and playful pedagogies that foster action-oriented and equitable approaches to climate change education. She has published in Science Scope, Science and Children, and Language Arts, and she has participated in projects funded by the National Science Foundation and by the U.S. Department of Education that advance teacher education and equity in the promotion of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Earl Aguilera is an associate professor of teacher education at California State University, East Bay. He is the author of Digital Literacies and Interactive Media: A Framework for Multimodal Analysis, along with numerous publications and presentations about game-based learning. In addition, he spends his time supporting middle and high school teachers in developing their own approaches to disciplinary literacy, technology integration, and critical pedagogy.

Pete King is a senior lecturer at Swansea University in the Department for Education and Childhood Studies and the program director for its graduate course in Developmental and Therapeutic Play. He has published five books on play, the most recent being The Play Cycle in Practice: Supporting, Observing, and Reflecting on Children’s Play, which represents thirty years of practice, research, and lecturing on play.

Doug Maynard is a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He was trained as an industrial-organizational psychologist and published in a variety of journals, primarily on the topic of overqualification and underemployment. He heads the Positive Play Lab, which focuses on play in adulthood. His work on play and games has appeared in Analog Game Studies, the Journal of Play in Adulthood and the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research. Lars Ellwanger holds a B.S. in industrial and organizational psychology from the State University of New York at New Paltz. His research examines playfulness, play guilt, and volunteering motivation, and he has presented workshops on these at The Association for the Study of Play (TASP) conferences in 2024 and 2025. An active member of the Positive Play Lab, Lucia Daher participated in the studies examining adult play presented at the TASP conferences in 2024 and 2025. Most recently, she has undertaken a cross cultural study of adult play and sibling relationships. Mike Jagacki is a researcher, adjunct professor, and, for a decade, a college basketball coach. He holds a masters in psychological science from the State University of New Paltz, where his work focused on play, productivity, and ecological psychology. He has lectured on play and productivity, presented materials on play guilt, and contributed to conference presentations through the Positive Play Lab. He has also worked in the Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience Lab at Rutgers University.