A preeminent play-theory scholar reviews a lifetime devoted to the study of play in a lively, even playful, recounting of his illustrious career and some of its autobiographical roots. The author covers the development of his three major theories of play--as a viability variable, as culturally relative play forms, and as a co-evolutionary…

Author focused on play as a useful and essential activity. (Editor/RK)

This paper provides an analysis of plot structure in stories freely narrated by five-to-ten-year-old elementary school children. The question was raised whether the stories, collected over a two-year period, would reflect the children's transition from home to school by a shift from a private to a public character. Structural analyses of plot,…

This paper examines structural paradigms for the analysis of narratives drawn from Levi-Strauss, Propp and Piaget. It shows that all are successful in differentiating between the stories freely told by children of different age levels ranging from 2 to 12 years. (MS)

Well meaning parents and teachers often use children's play for the purposes of literacy and socialization. Yet, these attempts may deny play to children by subordinating play to some other concept. Evidence shows that even when parents play with their very young children they generally play games like shopping, cooking, and eating; whereas when…

This study represents the integration of several smaller studies and articles on how the fantasies of children between age 5 and 7 become structured by the socialization pressures of the media and the school and how this helps or hinders the growth of children's own imaginative processes. Paper 1 is a research review and theoretical overview of…