Strong oral language skills are foundational for literacy development and begin before a child enters formal schooling. Oral language development has been related to pretend play abilities in children. Children, particularly those from disadvantaged areas, who enter school with low pretend play levels and oral language abilities, are at risk for…

It has been suggested that children's drawings are associated with their representation ability. However, there is little research on the cognitive basis of drawing in young children. In this study, we investigated the relationship between drawing, language ability, and the presence of imaginary companions (ICs) in children aged between three and…

Aims: To determine the associations between COVID-19 school closures and school readiness skills for Chinese kindergarteners. Design: We utilized the natural experimental condition created by local COVID-19 outbreaks in 2022 (Study 1) to compare school readiness skills of children whose kindergartens were closed for 5 months (Group 1) with…

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…

"Play" is a word used commonly to refer to children's preferred activities and to some adult activities, and it is often said that play promotes learning. But what is play exactly, and what and how do children learn through play? This essay begins with a description of an evolutionary, practice theory of play by German philosopher and…

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…

Aim: This is a cross-national study with the aim to explore the development of children with autism over time in the UK and Greece. The focus of the study was to investigate the differences in language and social skills between children with autism across the two countries who were receiving different types of treatment: speech and language…

Drama provides an opportunity for students to use their imagination to express themselves verbally and with body language and is concerned with the world of 'let's pretend'. It has been widely used to foster language skills in foreign language teaching and engages both students and the teachers affectively and cognitively. Apart from its…

This paper explores the possibilities of the pedagogical use of Socratic dialogue as a basis for educating students diagnosed with autism. The Socratic dialogue is a particular pedagogical method used in educational settings to enhance student's thinking and dialogic abilities. Research has proven that Socratic dialogue may result in improved…

Few subjects have suffered as much as the liberal arts from the power of stale rhetoric, hollow appeals to tradition, and journalistic misrepresentation. Leon Botstein, begins this article by saying that together, these three factors have generated and legitimated public skepticism about the liberal arts. A liberal arts education (which is rarely…

Works of literature for children are supposed to give prominence to the child's self. In other words, the level of the works is expected to be appropriate to the characteristics of this demographic. In works of children's literature, the prominence of adults and their worlds along with their ideological, religious, and traditional statements,…

The experiences of children's play have a profound impact on all areas of their growth and development. Memories of play can be vivid and detailed. These memories often have a treasured place in our hearts and minds. Educators and parents have a special opportunity to ask themselves, "What kind of memories of play do I hope for the children…

Implicit theories can influence learning behavior, the approaches individuals take to learning and performance situations, and the learning goals individuals set, as well as, indirectly, their accomplishments, intelligence, and creativity. For this cross-cultural study, Kenyan and German students were asked to draw a creative person and rate it on…

Most children are able to successfully develop and use social skills in the context of interactions with peers and significant adults. Moreover, the ability to interact successfully with peers is crucial in establishing and maintaining viable social relationships. For children with disabilities, like pervasive development disorder (PDD),…

This study explored the effects of a child's gender and school setting on preschoolers' language abilities (receptive vocabulary), creativity, and social play. The participants were primarily European-American children who spoke English as a primary language (nine children were bilingual), and were from middle income socioeconomic backgrounds.…