10/31/2025
🌻 The Power of Play in Growing Brains 🌻
At Bloom, we often talk about how every experience — movement, touch, connection — helps wire a child’s developing brain. But one of the most powerful (and overlooked) builders of brain health is play.
Play is not just fun — it’s neurologically essential!
Through play, children are literally sculpting the architecture of their brains. Each laugh, pretend scenario, or game of tag strengthens neural connections, promotes healthy sensory integration, and builds the foundation for skills like focus, emotional regulation, creativity, and problem-solving.
Play supports:
• Healthy brain architecture and stronger neural connections
• Development of executive functions — attention, memory, and self-control
• Reduction of toxic stress through safe, joyful interaction
• Growth in social and emotional intelligence — empathy, curiosity, and resilience
• Lifelong learning, through the dopamine-driven reward of discovery and fun
When children play, they aren’t “just playing.” They’re doing the deep work of growing their brains, building emotional resilience, and preparing for all future learning.
At Bloom Wellness & Chiropractic, we support this natural process through chiropractic care that nurtures the nervous system, helping children regulate, adapt, and thrive — body and brain in perfect balance. 💛
“It seems strange, or should seem strange, that anyone would need to defend the value of school recesses. The need for recess is even greater now than it was decades ago, because children now are far more restricted from opportunities to play freely with other children in settings outside of school than was true in the past. If schools are to be truly centers for education, then education must be understood as far more than test scores. Education involves strengthening of mind and body, and that occurs best when children are free to use their minds and bodies as nature intended.” – Peter Gray, PhD
Recess is essential for children’s physical, mental and emotional development. Studies show that more and better-quality recess improves focus, creativity, social skills, and even academic performance, all while reducing stress.
Read the full article “What Good is Recess?” by Peter Gray, PhD to learn why recess is vital for healthy development and how schools can better support play: https://pathwaystofamilywellness.org/childrens-health-wellness/what-good-is-recess.html
