It is an appropriate motto for Malina, whose work revolves around play.

Two-and-a-half years ago she moved from sports development into her current role as play development officer for Highland Council. And while she may be a sports lover, Malina feels that play can be a more effective way of encouraging children to get active than structured sporting activities, an important consideration in a country where more than a third of 12-year-olds are overweight, 20 per cent are obese and 11 per cent are classified as severely obese.

"As someone said to me: 'we know there are children who don't like football, but we've never heard of a child who doesn't like to play'," she said. "We also know they burn a lot more calories playing than they do with structured sports."

Yet things have changed for youngsters, even since the days when Malina would head out of the family home on Drummond Road and not return until she was tired and frequently soaked, much later.

"I think play is much more tightly controlled. They don't seem to have as much freedom and space to explore," she suggested.

"We know that the distance children are allowed to go from home is much reduced — 90 per cent reduced from the generation before — because of fear about traffic and 'stranger danger', even though we know kids are no more likely to be abducted today than they were 50 years ago.

"I don't think the Highlands should be suffering the same way as urban centres are. Parents are right to be concerned, but at times they can be overprotective.

"You have got to keep in perspective the amount of times these things are happening. Parents could even watch them from a distance until their minds are at rest, but it's much more dangerous not to let children have their freedom."

Education authorities have also erred on the side of caution, perhaps out of fear of legal action, and the boisterous game of British Bulldog — a playground favourite of a generation ago — received a blanket ban. Some British schools have even banned skipping and conkers.

It seems it is not only adults who need to be persuaded of the benefits of playing, however. To the attractions of television, radio and music have been added computer games, the internet and chatting or texting on mobile phones.

"It's difficult once they have experienced that level of sophistication in entertainment to say to them: 'Let's go play in the leaves'," Malina acknowledged.

It is Malina's role not only to encourage children to play, but to find ways of promoting and enhancing their play experience, which is why she has authored the authority's Highland Play Strategy, which may not be the first document of its kind, but is the most high profile.

"Highland Council has been committed to play for six or seven years and the momentum is growing," Malina said.

Fortunately, more agencies are coming to recognise this. National body Play Scotland, of which Malina is a director, is making an impact at government level, and perhaps there are signs of a national reaction against the "cotton-wool" tendencies of parents and educators and the Playstation and Xbox addictions of their children. After all, one of the publishing successes of the past couple of years has been "The Dangerous Book for Boys", encouraging boys to recover their sense of adventure — so no surprise Malina has bought a copy as a present for a young relation.

This new awareness of the need to recognise the importance of play is starting to have an impact beyond leisure, childcare and education and has now spread to encourage such areas as roads, planning and housing, ensuring new developments are designed to include space for children to play.

"I was very eager to get my foot in the door with planning and Inverness planning now pass their play area proposals to me, only in the last six months, but I think that's very positive," she said.

She was also heartened by a recent comment from the Health and Safety Executive recognising children need to face a little risk and challenge, and although 38,000 children a year visit hospital after suffering playground injuries, 200,000 are injured simply getting in and out of bed.

Yes, there may be risks in play, Malina admits, but these are far outweighed by the benefits, of which fitness is just one.

"If children never come across any challenges, they will never progress."

"Babies wouldn't learn to walk if they weren't permitted to fall over."

To confidence and decision making, Malina can also add social and imaginative benefits as well as increased environmental awareness.

"Children need to play with their peers. It's much more important than playing with adults and I know it's difficult in our institutions, our pre-school nurseries and schools, for them to get complete control of their play," she said.

"Obviously, we decide how long they are going to play, but through the active co-ordinators we are trying to develop thinking into letting children guide their own play. Not telling them: 'This is a hula-hoop, this is you do with it, anything else is wrong.' If you just give children a hula-hoop, it can become whatever they want it to be."

A grant from Awards for All will help provide inclusive play training, which will eventually be provided region-wide, and will involve such things as dressing up costumes and "junk play" equipment, which can comprise everyday items such as boxes, ladders, planks, old blankets, tubes, pipes, carpets or natural materials such as logs or driftwood.

"That's great for social interaction because you find kids that were very poor at social interaction before discover something they are good at," Malina said.

"We're trying to advocate as well that children get out more often. We don't want them to be taught that you only go out in good weather. Our weather's not good enough to think that way!"

As someone who backs Billy Connolly's assertion that "there's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing", Malina is keen to see youngsters making better use of the great resource on our doorstep that is the Scottish Highlands and draws comparison with the enthusiasm for the outdoors she experienced in New Zealand, where she lived for a time after graduating with an honours degree in sports management.

"I think people are recognising that more. Outdoor enthusiasts are now saying: 'why do we need to go anywhere else?'" she said.

Malina also spent some time in Australia, but always knew she would come home to the Highlands.

"I wanted to work here and I was lucky to get the job of my dreams," she said with a smile.

"It's great. I jump out of bed every morning and I can't wait to get started. And with something like play, the arguments are so clear you don't have to do much of a selling job."

True to the motto over her desk, Malina also likes to get out and play. A sprinter in school, she later turned her attention to basketball, but now her main focuses are aerobics and music.

"I know what sport has given to me and I know what the Highlands have given to me and that's why I'm back here," she said.

If there is one niggle about her job, it is sometimes that her title is trivialised with bar room talk of Malina "the playgirl", but she feels this is a small price to pay.

"It's a serious issue and I take it seriously," she declared.

"Just because it's fun, doesn't mean its not important."

* The Highland Play Strategy can be seen online at www.forhighlandschildren.org

c.macleod@inverness-courier.co.uk

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