Children’s Play in the Shadow of War - key words and research argument

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Dipper

Explores how armed conflict acutely stresses but does not eradicate children’s play, arguing that children persist through games in modified forms as a coping mechanism. Using evidence from the Syrian Civil War and comparisons with clandestine games during the Holocaust, the study shows play’s precariousness and significance amid mass violence. It also positions play as both a target of war and a therapeutic means for processing traumatic wartime experience.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Children’s Play as a First Casualty

Play’s Persistence Under Armed Conflict

Coping through Adapted Games

Research Aim and Scholarly Gap

Comparative Argument: Syria and the Holocaust

Play as Cognition and Therapeutic Contention

Children’s Play in the Shadow of War • Daniel Feldman The author demonstrates that war places children’s play under acute stress but does not eliminate it. He argues that the persistence of children’s play and games during periods of armed conflict reflects the significance of play as a key mode for children to cope with conditions of war. Episodes of children’splay drawn from the recent Syrian Civil War illustrate the precariousness and importance of children’s play and games during contemporary armed conflict and focus attention on children’s play as a disregarded casualty of war. The article compares the state of underground children’s play in contemporary Syria with the record of clandestine games played by children in the Holocaust to substantiate its claim that children adapt their play to concretize and comprehend traumatic wartime experience. The article posits that play is both a target of war and a means of therapeutically contending with mass violence. Key words: play and trauma; play therapy; Syrian Civil War; the Holocaust; underground play; war play Children’s play typically becomes one of the first targets of armed conflict. Even before hostilities reach a fever pitch and mortality figures soar to appalling heights, families rush children from vulnerable play spaces, curtail their outdoor games, and interrupt everyday play in many other ways because children’s basic safety, obviously, takes precedence over recreational activity. Characterized by the looming threat of physical danger and pernicious scarcity, war puts both the free play and structured games of childhood under intense strain. This attack on the diverse range of play categories (Caillois 2001) typifies modern military conflict: war threatens indoor games and outdoor sport, directed play as well as independent make-believe.“Many of today’s conflicts last the length of a childhood, so that from birth to early adulthood, children experience multiple and accumulative assaults,” states Ellen Frey-Wouters (1997, 288 American Journal of Play, volume 11, number 3 © The Strong [Contact Daniel Feldman at daniel.feldman@biu.ac.il](Contact Daniel Feldman at daniel.feldman@biu.ac.il) 1). Among those multiple and accumulative assaults lies a wholesale attack on play. On a contemporary battlefield that increasingly puts civilians and domestic spaces in the crosshairs, games and play find no safe quarter. Yet despite the significant risk, mass violence does not eliminate children’s play. On the contrary, contemporary and historical examples offer compelling evidence that children persist with their games and play during periods of armed conflict, albeit often in modified form. Because war and play appear to be diametrically opposed, the crucial question becomes to what purpose children engage in games and play in times of violent unrest. Although the wretched toll of militant conflict logically appears to preclude the mere possibility of carefree childhood recreation, war forms the developmental backdrop for millions of children around the globe growing up in zones of unremitting hostility. However, children living under war conditions do not cease to play. Instead, they adapt their games to the constraints of conflict and persevere with their play in the face of lethal danger. This article explores how and why. The nexus of play and war has received scant attention in the field of play studies, and we need sustained further research both on the sociological changes to children’s play during periods of mass violence and on its psychological impact on children. This article aims to draw scholarly attention to the phenomenon of children’s play in the shadow of war by considering how play becomes not only a casualty of modern warfare but also a means of coping with it. Historical accounts and contemporary reports of children who play in contexts beset by mass violence demonstrate the centrality of play both as a crucial mode for young people to contend w

FAQs

What is the central purpose of children’s games and play in times of violent unrest?

Because play is seen as both threatened by war and essential for making sense of reality, children use games and make-believe to assert juvenile order and cope with mass violence. Play also connects to therapeutic approaches such as play therapy.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Dipper