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The 19th Glen E. Gresham Visiting Professorship lecturer delivered a powerful message: Play isn’t just for fun — it’s crucial for motor, social, cognitive and emotional development.

“Don’t apologize for just playing,” said Shelly Lane. “Whether it’s with your grandkids, your kids, your therapy participants — everybody should play.”

Lane, professor and academic program director at Colorado State University and director of the CSU Sensory Integration, Play and Occupational Therapy Lab, discussed “Understanding Play and Playfulness and their Neural Foundations” on with a packed audience of faculty, staff, students and community members interested in occupational therapy.

Lane kicked off the lecture on April 11 with a lighthearted video compilation of playing animals — rabbits and dogs chasing each other and, to the audience’s delight, a chicken energetically passing a ball back and forth with a human companion.

Play, she explained, is not just a human experience but a universal behavior seen across species. Research shows that more playful animals show major neurological benefits from their playfulness.

“What we know about play is that it’s been studied most extensively in animals. From a neuroscience perspective, we know that more playful animals show slower brain maturation but get bigger brains in the end.”

But what is play? And what does it mean for humans?

“You might know it when you see it, but it’s hard to define because it looks different for everyone,” she said.

Lane described play as activities that are freely chosen, self-motivated and pursued simply for the joy of the experience. Whether it’s a game night, a craft or a crossword puzzle, true play is fluid and internally driven. Ultimately, she stressed that play is imperative for good health.

“Play deprivation is a scary thing. It negatively impacts all aspects of development and may, in the end, lead to mental and physical health challenges,” she said.

Her long research and teaching career has focused on topics linked to neuroscience foundations of childhood occupations and occupational challenges. She has edited, co-authored and contributed to texts addressing sensory integration and processing, neuroscience applications to practice, and pediatric occupational therapy practice. 

Throughout the lecture, Lane also noted that play relies on many interconnected systems within the brain.

“Play depends on many regions and structures in the brain,” she said. These areas work together through complex neural networks that enable playful experiences involving movement, social connection, attention, motivation and pleasure.

Lane expressed concern that play is not recognized enough in the field of occupational therapy as an occupation of importance, despite its impact on development and health.

“It should be the most important occupation that we work on in therapy for adults, for adolescents, for children, for babies across the lifespan,” she said.

The Gresham Visiting Professorship in Rehabilitation Science was endowed by the late Albert Rekate and his wife, Linda, and is presented by the Department of Rehabilitation Science in the School of Public Health and Health Professions.