The Role of Play in Promoting Resilience

In this chapter, the author addresses the issue of play, questioning the role it plays in the life and development of the child and if it can be a promoter of well-being and resilience when children are faced with adverse situations. Play in its various forms of expression is not just a pastime or a waste of time; it is a vital element of childhood that fosters development and should be promoted in all circumstances, even where living conditions are particularly difficult and hostile. It is therefore legitimate to ask oneself about the importance of promoting play and recreational activities in hospitals, that is, in those places that by their very function manage illness and the suffering it entails. Helping young people cope with the hardships brought about by a stay in hospital means drawing attention to the fact that whatever the outcome, before being a patient, a child is always a child, where their right to well-being is seen as not only the “absence of disease or infirmity” but as “a state of total physical, mental, and social well-being.”