Meaningful play are actions or activities built with either a designed or inherent intent, such as data collection or therapy.
An example of this is that sports have the inherent meaning of being fun and full of physical activity to promote wellness.
[3] As well there are studies branching out to different age groups seeing if meaningful play can help the elderly with cognitive and physical functioning.
The experimental approach works quite well for the most common research participant (University undergraduate students) but for children it can be more difficult to keep them interested in the task which allows more room for noise.
[5] An example of an experiment designed to be as simple as possible for gathering data would be the Ainsworth Strange Situation task.
In the psychology, meaningful play is used for extracting data from animals who are unable to verbally give us the meaning behind their actions.
In university settings, environmental enrichment boxes for pigeons, mice, and other animals have the inherent meaning of allowing them exercise and mental stimulation.
This follows from the designed meaning of the enrichment boxes to keep the animals at mental peak and closer to a natural environment.
[11] It can involve various methods from using dolls to role-playing, all of which help to bring the participant into a state of mind where they feel comfortable discussing or overcoming the problem they are experiencing.
When participants of this kind of therapy use playing, in any form, it helps them to overcome whatever is causing their negative state in a safe and secure environment.
These can be broken down into the original components of meaningful play, where descriptive is inherent, and evaluative is the designed meaning of the game.
For these types of games, the entire focus is on the evaluative definition because they are built for the sole purpose of trying to educate the player about the message and meaning the party has.
[20] As well, recess is a highly studied area for meaningful play where children build relationships and social skills.
It allowed many students to all interact and participate with each other in a video game environment to help with learning and to make it more engaging.
While humorous, these actions are performed for more than just the express to play, but also with the meaning and intention to train the animals.
Difficult topics that arise during court cases or when attempting to retrieve eyewitness testimony can be problematic when dealing with children.