
The Art of Roughhousing
by Anthony DeBenedet & Lawrence Cohen
Roughhousing is good for kids. Science agrees. Here's how.
For you if
you want permission and a practical guide to getting on the floor and playing rough with your kid in the way your instincts have always told you was good
⚡ Choose Your Route ⚡
Not sold directly on this site. Support indie bookstores with a new copy, or go sustainable with a used one.
Buy New on Bookshop.orgSupports independent bookstores
— OR —
Find Used on Better World BooksSecondhand & sustainable
$10 MSRP
Reference price shown. Other editions may be available.
Roughhousing — pillow fights, wrestling, chasing, tumbling — has been designed out of modern childhood in the name of safety, and DeBenedet and Cohen argue this is a serious mistake. Physical play is how children learn to regulate emotion, read social cues, take appropriate risks, and develop the confidence that comes from their body doing hard things. The book is both a manifesto for bringing roughhousing back and a practical guide to doing it safely and joyfully. The most fun book on this shelf and the one that most directly applies to the DoCR philosophy: children learn through making and doing and moving, not through sitting still.
Where This Book Lives
- Themes
- child developmentplay
Same pattern, different era
Different time, different place. The same thing keeps happening.
Free to Learn
Peter Gray

Children are designed to learn through play. School keeps interrupting.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
The Whole-Brain Child
Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson

Their brain isn't finished yet. Here's what that means for you.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Playing and Reality
D.W. Winnicott

Play is not preparation for life. It is life. Winnicott proves it.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
How Children Learn
John Holt

Children are born knowing how to learn. Here's what that looks like.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
