Play in health care settings: a challenge for the 1990s.

Play, particularly unstructured and nondirective, has been believed to lessen the negative impact of hospitalization through expression of feelings, reversal of roles, and control of materials, concepts, and actions. Over time, however, changes in perspectives on play, hospital policies and practices, and the nature of illnesses of children have combined to influence the context for this form of play. Challenges to child-focused play and possible implications are derived from past events.