About This Lesson
Play is a powerful part of learning and wellbeing, especially during the winter months when students may need extra support with engagement, regulation, and connection. In schools and at home, play helps children build relationships, manage emotions, and stay motivated, and it looks different for every learner.
This unit study helps students understand play as an essential wellbeing skill through interactive lessons, reflection, and hands-on activities. By exploring different types of play and how play affects emotions, focus, and connection, students learn that play is a meaningful way to support brain health, emotional regulation, and overall wellbeing.
Learning Objectives
- Students learn to identify and describe different types of play and their role in personal wellbeing.
- Students learn to explore their own play preferences and practice giving themselves “permission to play.”
- Students learn to engage in structured and unstructured play activities to build social connection, emotional regulation and creativity.
Here’s what you’ll get
An entire Permission to Play unit, including,
- Student instruction and lessons in Google Slides format
- Teacher's guide and speaker notes
- Printable worksheets, activities, and materials that you can also share with families
- Answer keys for all lesson activities
Activities
Activity 1: Discovering Play Types
Activity 2: My Play Personality
Activity 3: Play Signals & Invitations
Activity 4: Permission to Play Breaks
Activity 5: Designing a Play Plan
Integration into Current Instruction:
Bringing wellbeing to the forefront doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your classroom routine. By integrating happiness skills into what you’re already teaching, you can help students learn and practice happiness in simple, meaningful ways. From morning meetings and check-ins to reading, writing, and relationship-building, there are countless ways to make wellbeing part of everyday learning.
Integrating play into existing instruction and intervention is about embedding playful approaches into what you are already doing. When framed as a teaching tool, play enhances motivation, engagement and generalization of skills while supporting wellbeing.
Why you’ll love this unit study
- Research-based and classroom-ready
- Inclusive, autism-affirming design
- Flexible for K–12, special education, and general education
Ways to use
- Weekly SEL lessons
- Counseling or small groups
- Autism support classrooms
- Wellbeing-focused instruction
What is Permission to Play?
Permission to Play is the wellbeing skill of recognizing play as essential and giving ourselves and others the freedom to engage in joyful, curiosity-driven activities without guilt or pressure.
As life gets busier, play often fades. Academic demands increase, schedules fill up, and many students (and adults) begin to believe that play is something you earn after being “productive.” Permission to Play challenges that idea by teaching that play is a powerful practice for learning, emotional regulation, connection, and resilience.
When students are given permission to play in ways that feel authentic to them, they learn that play is a meaningful part of wellbeing at school, at home, and throughout life.
Science of Permission to Play:
The science is clear: play is biologically essential. Neuroscientists have identified dedicated brain systems for play in mammals, showing that play supports learning, creativity, emotional regulation, and social connection.
Across the lifespan, play helps us explore ideas, solve problems, build identity, and connect with others. Children use play to make sense of their experiences and develop flexible thinking skills. Adolescents and adults who engage in play report greater joy, stronger relationships, and higher life satisfaction. For older adults, play supports social connection, mobility, and cognitive health.
Play is also deeply inclusive. For autistic individuals and other neurodivergent learners, honoring diverse play styles can reduce anxiety, support regulation, and foster a sense of belonging. When play is voluntary, joyful, and self-directed, it becomes one of the most accessible tools for wellbeing.
Benefits
Regular, meaningful play can help students, families, and educators:
- Improve emotional regulation and stress management
- Increase engagement, motivation, and focus
- Strengthen relationships and social connection
- Support creativity, curiosity, and flexible thinking
- Foster inclusion by honoring diverse play styles
- Boost overall wellbeing and life satisfaction
Learn more about the science of play.
Looking for more SEL Resources?
Explore the free full lesson plans and unit studies on the skills of happiness at our Skill Center. All units include teaching slides, additional worksheets and activities, and even IEP and BIP recommendations tailored specifically to students with autism.
Proof Positive’s resources are and will always be free. Be well!
