Hello everybody, I'm speaking today on matters psychological and practical, I suppose,

and hopefully also while entertaining and fun, as well as appropriately serious.

I'm talking to Rafe Kelly today who heads an organization called Evolve Move and Play,

and I'm very interested, have been very interested for a long time in the role of play in the

integration and regulation, well not only of aggression, but also in the fostering of pro-social

behavior at an embodied level.

There's a literature that has emerged over the last several decades, indicating that

rough and tumble play in particular is important for kids at very early developmental stages,

probably from six months up to, well who knows up to what level.

Still you're old and then that pretend play which scaffolds in on top of that is also

of primary significance in the development of the ability to act in a truly reciprocal and

social manner, a manner also that simultaneously fosters development.

So we're going to talk about that today.

So Rafe, why don't we start with a bit of your background?

Why don't you fill people in on your educational background, your interests and all that,

then we'll start talking about getting more to the nuts and bolts of play.

Yeah, I think given that you started with kind of rough and tumble play, it was good to

start with my early childhood.

So I was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia at an early age and my dad had had similar learning

disabilities that he'd really struggled with.

I was kind of raised in that counterculture, so my dad wanted to just take me out of the

school system and just unschool me and my mom didn't, so there was a big conflict there.

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