William Patrick Library Talks: Born To Play with Carol Craig & Tam Baillie

Born To Play - Why Play is Important for Healthy Child Development.

Almost every day new research shows downward trends in children and young people's health, well-being and social skills. Various experts now argue that the extensive use of screens and less outdoor play are the main reasons why we are seeing this worrying decline. Indeed, this is the argument cogently made by Professor Jon Haidt in his best-selling book The Anxious Generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness.

Carol Craig, who founded the Centre for Confidence and Well-being and is the Commissioning Editor for the book series, has been concerned about children and young people's lack of play and declining well-being for some time now. Indeed, she has commissioned and published two Postcards books on the importance of play.

The latest is Born to Play (2005) edited by Tam Baillie and Professor John McKendrick. The book features a range of authors discussing why play is so important to children's healthy development and why we need to find ways to get children and young people of all ages outdoors playing.

At this event Carol Craig will talk about her long-term concern about children's loss of resilience and why outdoor, independent play can help restore this resilience which is so important to well-being. Tam Baillie, former Children's Commissioner in Scotland and co-editor of Born to Play, will also speak about his growing passion for getting children outdoors playing.

Speaker details:

Tam Baillie is Chair of Child Protection Committees Scotland and

Independent Chair of Renfrewshire Child and Adult Protection Committee.

Tam was the Children and Young People’s Commissioner (Scotland) 2009 -2017 where he had a duty to promote and safeguard the rights of children and young people in Scotland.

Tam continues to work in a voluntary capacity for various of organisations, including Upstart Scotland (campaigning for kindergartens in Scotland) and the International Play Association (promoting worldwide play spaces for children). In February 2025, Tam and Professor John Mackendrick co-edited Born to Play.

Carol Craig set up the Centre for Confidence and Well-being in 2005 after the success of her first book The Scots' Crisis of Confidence. She has since written another five books including The Tears that Made the Clyde. She has written various articles and given a large number of talks and lectures on how cultural shifts are leading to a loss of child well-being and resilience. She was a board member of Upstart for almost five years and is increasingly committed to bringing about cultural and structural changes to encourage more children to play outdoors.

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