Play is how children make sense of their world. It is where they build confidence, process emotions, and discover what they are capable of, through laughter, connection, and imagination.

UNICEF's Meenakshi Dogra puts it clearly: "When we bring play into our everyday interactions with our children, it's like we know what they need. It's a secret element that deepens the parent-child connection like nothing else."

The Adventures of Gabriel was born during 21 months of separation between Kate and her son. With one hour weekly on FaceTime, Gabriel would narrate adventures and Kate would scribe. Together they built worlds where sea monsters were defeated, fears were faced, and love held. Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno of the SHERA Research Group described it as "a path towards light, in testament to the mother-child bond, in the midst of extremely dark times."

What started as a way to stay connected became something more: a storytelling ritual that gave Gabriel control over outcomes when so much felt out of control, a space to process emotions too big to name directly, and a weekly reminder that his voice mattered and his stories were worth telling. Meenakshi Dogra describes play as building the skills children need to "collaborate, innovate, and problem-solve in uncertainty." That is exactly what storytelling with complete creative freedom does.

The same principle is what makes StoryQuest work in classrooms. When teachers create weekly spaces where every child's story matters, where imagination drives the process and children take turns as storytellers and scribes, the results mirror what Gabriel and Kate discovered. Children who felt voiceless find they have stories worth telling. Reluctant writers become enthusiastic authors. Emotional regulation improves. Peer relationships strengthen. Across 465 children in 9 schools, the research documents 100% positive engagement, because when storytelling feels like play, every child wants to take part.

As Kate has said: "I spent my entire career as a physiotherapist helping people tell their stories, because the solution was always in the story. What Gabriel and I discovered during our separation is what I now see in every StoryQuest classroom: children thrive when we make space for their voices, when we follow their imagination, when we treat storytelling as the joyful, essential practice it is."

Stories matter. Play matters. Every child deserves to know that dragons can be beaten, cages can be broken, and their story is worth telling.