THE SCIENCE BEHIND FTDC
“Play stimulates the parts of the brain involved in both careful logical reasoning and carefree unbound exploration: Planning, prioritising, scheduling, anticipating, analysing, delegating, deciding - in short the skills any executive must master in order to excel in business”
EDWARD M HALLIWELL | DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION
We develop key cognitive skills and promote psychological wellness in a way that our current ‘fast-food’ education system fails to.
The literature on the benefits of face to face social, storytelling, pretend and creative play is extensive: In a life time study of over 6,000 play-histories, Stuart Brown (National Institute For Play) concluded that play has the power to significantly improve all aspects of human growth and interaction - from family life to personal health.
So what are these benefits...
NEUROLOGICAL BENEFITS
FTDC classes & activities encourage the
following effects on neuroplastic growth and
the executive functions of the brain:
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STRENGTHENING NEURAL PATHWAYS FOR EXPLORATION AND IMPROVISATION
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SHARPENING PERCEPTION OF
POSSIBILITY AND OPPORTUNITY
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ENCOURAGING INTER-CONNECTIVITY
OF IDEAS
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DEVELOPING THE RECEPTION AND PROCESSING OF UNTESTED CONCEPTS
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CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS
AND MAKING NEW DISCOVERIES.
“To play is to learn: When children play, they exercise their senses, their intellect, their emotions, their imagination—keenly and energetically. To play is to explore, to discover and to experiment. Playing helps children develop ideas and gain experience. It gives them a wealth of knowledge and information about the world in which they live—and about themselves. Play is fun for children. But it’s much more than that— it’s good for them, and it’s necessary. Play gives children the opportunity to develop and use the many talents they were born with.”
JAAK PANKSEPP | AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE
SOCIAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS
Panksepp discovered mammals have neural play circuitry and that play is necessary to social thriving.
Further, he showed that strengthening these neural pathways at an early age is so fundamental to key cognitive skills that it aids in survival. We now know for example that bears who play the most live the longest and in a world continuously presenting unique challenges and ambiguity, play prepares these bears (as well as our own little cubs) for a changing planet.
Humans are the biggest players of all: We are built to play and built through play. Role-playing games teach the power of working together, how to turn a loss into something helpful and how leading and winning as a team is the best feeling in the world.
"WHEN I EXAMINE MYSELF AND MY METHODS OF THOUGHT I COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THE GIFT OF FANTASY HAS MEANT MORE TO ME THAN MY TALENT FOR ABSORBING POSITIVE KNOWLEDGE."
EINSTEIN
EDUCATION BEYOND EXAMS
“We have sold ourselves into a fast food model of education, and it's impoverishing our spirit and our energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies...I believe this passionately: that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.”
SIR KEN ROBINSON | LEGENDARY EDUCATIONALIST
Education should be more than just exams, grades and training our children to enter the labour market. It should be about nurturing their creativity and individual brilliance.
Our current school system, for all the hard work and dedication of the people who staff them, do not and can not prioritise these things.
Ken Robinson has long been our guiding educational light and the key influence to our ethos and style. While we believe literacy and maths are crucially important we believe education should be about discovery, creativity and collaboration: That the whole self should be educated, not just the things that get a pass mark for an exam body.
Along with numeracy and literary skills we use our games and stories to provide cathartic physiological benefits by unpicking and rationalising nightmares, using symbols and archetypes to make sense of complex reality and developing intimacy, trust and connection amongst peers.
Good stories are good for the soul.
We use this principle to guide our games.