If it's bad, we look at what the bad behavior does to others, and maybe the person doing the bad thing. If it's good, like learning to ride a bike, playing or getting a college education, we focus on how that benefits the person, then maybe we look at the effects on the emotional context, maybe.

Children's play does as much good for the parents and surrounding relationship contexts as it does to children's brains and their social and survival skills . Can you imagine how it is for adults in general, parents in particular, to live in a world absent children's play and all the sounds and sights that go with it? If nothing else, children's play helps to calm anxious adults by connoting that the world is relatively safe and secure enough to have a future.

Oh, by the way, calmer, happier adult communities certainly must have positive influences on the over all developmental aspects of growing children. This thing could even feed on itself; calm adults, children playing, calmer adults, happier kids......What a concept! Wish adult researchers found it intriguing enough to investigate the contextual benefits along with the brain and social benefits of child play rather than looking only into half the story.

To take this a step further, let me suggest that every single act of a given person has consequences both to the person and his or her relationship context. Nothing exists outside a context. The thing that exists and its context reciprocate their mutual influence on each other. That's the full story.