The author investigates the imaginative play of children online as they seek a common, shared space with others, in which to play. She looks at components of children's online play experiences, including mediated actions, discourses, literacies, sense of belonging, and online restrictions as they moved between digital and nondigital realities. She…

This article argues for a reconceptualisation of early childhood education, where learning and development are not only valued by outcome, and aims to investigate how aesthetic processes are organised in ways for the children to be inspired, to compare, explore, and play. Inspired by a Vygotsky perspective and his theories of play, imagination,…

During imaginative play, children may learn foundational skills important for academic success. Indeed, imaginative children, high in fantasy orientation (FO), may have advantages in skills that support positive classroom and social behavior. Yet findings are mixed regarding the classroom behavior of children high in fantasy orientation. The…

Visual art activities such as the processing of output in the form of drawing encourage children to use their imagination, expression, and multiple intelligences. Through visual art activities, children can participate actively in a more enjoyable learning environment. Drawing is an essential part of children in the production of various forms…

Educators are continuously exploring ways to enhance the academic potential of students while fostering a positive social atmosphere within classrooms. To meet these various curricular and interpersonal objectives, teachers are increasingly utilising educational storification in order to engage students and positively support their social…

This Australian study examines whether and how technologies such as Artificially Intelligent (AI) toys in a home-based setting might socially and emotionally support children with diverse needs through play. Building on the concept of 'emotional capital', and employing a design-based research approach, parents during the COVID-19 lockdown periods…

The objectives of the research were to investigate a creative learning promotion activity package for 30 Thai seven-year-old, first-grade school students. Secondly, to design a creative learning promotion activity package, followed by an assessment of the creative learning development process from a series of creative learning promotion…

Pretend play may be beneficial for young children's social development. However, empirical results to date are inconsistent and limited, which is partly due to a lack of psychometrically sound measures for children's social pretend play competence. The current study aimed to compare and validate different assessment methods for children's social…

In this ethnographic research, discovery of how preschool-aged children use play to wield their individual power in the outdoors is documented in a single classroom. Embedded as a participant-researcher and working from constructivist and critical theory orientations, the researcher seeks to understand how children use their play to construct the…

Pretense is a naturally occurring, apparently universal activity for typically developing children. Yet its function and effects remain unclear. One theorized possibility is that pretense activities, such as dramatic pretend play games, are a possible causal path to improve children's emotional development. Social and emotional skills,…

In this paper, I study the narrative structure of comics as a means to describe the ways that indeterminate modes of representation can allow the reader to imagine that which in childhood can never be fully expressed. Analyzing a number of panels from Gilbert Hernandez's graphic novel, "Marble Season," I describe a conceptual link…

Puppetry plays an edutainment role in playing and learning activities for nursery and kindergarten children. This qualitative study was aimed to investigate the benefits of puppetry activities for children who were enrolled in early childhood programs. In-depth interviews were conducted with four respondents, two of whom were child care providers…

This research utilised a "stimulated recall" methodology [Calderhead, J. 1981. "Stimulated Recall: A Method for Research on Teaching." "British Journal of Educational Psychology" 51: 211-217] to explore the potential of African folklore, specifically Ghanaian folk stories in the development of children's reflective…

This article reports findings from an evaluation study of a 10-week interactive drama residency in a large Head Start preschool in a southeastern state. The goal of the study was to learn about what happened when three to five-year old children and their teachers experienced interactive drama, with particular questions about how the young…

Toddlers with an older sibling with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and low risk (LR) toddlers with typically-developing older siblings were observed during free play with a parent and elicited pretend with an examiner at 22-months. Functional and pretend play, children's social engagement, and parent sensitivity were assessed during free play.…