Play-dough: Childhood friend or foe

When it comes to defining childhood there could be a different definition for everyone. It could be having lots of free time, playing with toys, and using your own creativity. With play-doh, it allows for children to have a toy where children can use their creativity anyways they want to which allows them to sharpen their ideas which are also safe for children to use as a toy. An article conducted by Michigan State University states that “When playing with peers, these creations can become much more involved, with different characters and buildings. The opportunities are endless!”(Shrier 5). According to the article, it states that with play-doh it allows for endless opportunities when using the toy which allows for the creativity of the child but also a fun toy to play with. This states that the meaning of play-doh is for kids to sharpen their creativity which happens during their childhood years. Sharpening children’s minds, allows kids to be problem solvers early on in their lives which helps make them more readily prone to problem-solving, which will become a useful tool for children in school. With play-doh, it is a missing puzzle piece to children’s childhood experience. It’s the missing puzzle piece that solves their puzzle by allowing children to have their own creativity and problem-solving skills which is the piece to having a full childhood experience. With the completed set, it can be shown how the puzzle allows an educational experience that helps with childhood development that is also fun to play with. Play dough can’t only be limited to children but can also be used by adults. When adults rediscover play-dough, they can remember why the toy felt as if it was like childhood. It can show how the use of creativity makes them feel like a child again by making any shape or figure with their own imagination and also using their own strategies on how their figure will end up working. Playing with the toy can also be a reminder to adults that their childhood is over and that they can’t be playing with these toys anymore. Play-dough can be a reminder to adults about how their creativity sharpened their minds with their own thought and meaning behind the toy but can also be a reminder that childhood is gone and that they’re living in the real world now. Play-dough is an essential toy for childhood which is why it allows adults to be reminded that they’re older now and can’t use this toy anymore like how they did when they were children. Nostalgia can be enabled by being reminded of childhood but nostalgia just traps people into the feeling of wanting the past instead of living in the now or looking forward to better things to happen in the future. Overall, Play-dough essentially can be harmful to a child later in life. When an adult looks back on their childhood they can be reminded of the toy they used all the time because they had all the time in the world when they were a child. It sets a reminder to adults that they’re not children anymore and that they’re real people in the real world. Even making a simple shape like a circle out of play-dough can be reminded of all thoughts of childhood.

Sources

Shrier, Carrie “Purpose of playing with play dough.” January 6, 2017 https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/purpose_of_playing_with_play_dough