Creativity and Serious Playfulness in Patient Education

Mike links Einstein's idea of combinatory play to the use of metaphor in patient education, with examples from Newton, Einstein and Max Planck of ideas that came from unrelated images. Guilford's Alternative Uses Task asks people to list as many uses for a paper clip as they can in 60 seconds, scored on fluency, originality, flexibility and elaboration. Mike applies the same idea to exercise: a chair, table, wall, floor or staircase make a home gym, and patients list as many movements as they can with each, so they design the program themselves. Exercise prescription follows three rules: meaning, meaning, meaning. A sit to stand only matters when it connects to a goal such as playing with children or lifting boxes at work. A clip from Sir Ken Robinson describes a longitudinal study in which 98% of kindergarten children scored at genius level for divergent thinking, a share that fell as they went through school.