Discrete-trial instruction (DTI) is a behavioral method of teaching young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that has received a significant amount of research support. Because of a lack of qualified trainers in many areas of the world, researchers have recently begun to investigate alternative methods of training professionals to…

Using role playing during physical education provides limitless opportunities for intervention and for the demonstration of personal and social qualities. The purpose of this article is to provide easy steps for implementing role playing as a strategy to teach social skills to students in the physical education setting.

Suggests how simple role-playing can be used to improve social interaction of primary students. (MG)

Investigates the developmental sequence of learning to transform objects into agents and recipients of action in early symbolic play. Each of 48 children (from 14 to 25 months old) demonstrated initiative pretending after an adult modeled agent and recipient substitutions in pretending to talk on the telephone. (Author/CB)

Eighty elementary school children assigned to experimental conditions of modeling, role playing, and modeling combined with role playing, chose significantly more delayed rewards than control children. Findings suggest that modeling is a significant determinant of self-control behaviors. The effectiveness of the role playing procedure was…

Describes a study designed to test (1) the effects of an educational prosocial television program on learning and behavior of kindergarten children; and (2) two types of training, verbal labeling and role playing, designed to help children learn the content of the program. Children were able to generalize learning. (ED)

Documented differences in the quality of play in thematic and housekeeping organizational patterns of the sociodramatic play center in a preschool classroom. Found the thematic organization resulted in higher quality sociodramatic play in which the children enacted more roles outside the home, utilized more aspects of their roles, demonstrated…

Summarized is a therapy approach utilizing characterizations designed to help the client reduce his neurotic behaviors and develop his true potentials. Growing up, he may have been forced to reject aspects of his personality to meet others' expectations. Thus, he is not integrated or whole. To reduce the control used to hide his rejected parts of…

Creative dramatics were used to stimulate the moral development of students in inner-city schools. Moral dilemma situations were dramatized. The dramatic presentations, followed by discussion, may be a method for growth in moral judgments and ultimately in advanced moral behavior. (Author)

The role of play in educational programs for nonhandicapped learners is discussed along with the development of play behaviors and the potential of play activities for facilitating personality growth among the severely disabled. (JN)

The relationship between self-control and role-taking deficits as exhibited by 37 female institutionalized juvenile delinquents was assessed by Chandler's measure of social egocentrism. Subjects, matched on the basis of their scores on the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) Test, were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. The treatment…

Examined the spontaneous pretend play of mothers and children from the inception of pretend play in late infancy through its elaboration during the preschool years. Suggests that although mothers and young children had different primary motives for initiating pretend play, they both capitalized upon the others' interests in, or support of, pretend…

Two children with autism, aged 10, were exposed to peer-implemented pivotal response training (PRT). Typical peers implemented PRT strategies by modeling, role playing, and didactic instruction. Both children with autism maintained prolonged interactions with the peer, initiated play and conversations, and increased engagement in language and…

Describes research on the training of children to acquire prosocial behavior, especially through television viewing. Published by the Journal of the American Speech and Hearing Association, The Interstate Printers and Publishers, Inc., Danville, Ill., (Subscription: $28.00; $31.00 Foreign; single copy $2.50; $2.75 Foreign). (MH)

A projective role taking task (RTT) was revised with respect to procedure and scoring categories for use with the mentally retarded. The revised RTT was administered to 123 educables. Results indicated significant associations between mental age and various indices of the retardates' role taking behavior. These associations remained significant…