Thirty-two preschoolers were observed while they played with realistic play props and nonrealistic play materials in an effort to determine whether realism of play objects was related to overall symbolic object transformation. Boys of all ages and girls under age five demonstrated greater symbolic activity with realistic play props. (SH)

To investigate the development of preschoolers' social-cognitive play behaviors, ten preschoolers (two, three and four years old) were observed in their classrooms on 15 occasions by a time-sampling schedule. Social-cognitive behavior coding (Parten and Smilansky) indicates that children's play became more social as they grew older. (Author/PN)

Ten language-impaired children, aged three-four, were observed playing with toys and with objects requiring object transformations for play. Chronological age-matched normal subjects performed more object transformations than either the language-impaired subjects or children matched for mean length of utterance. All children performed more object…

Analyzed records of Slovene children's speech from a linguistic point of view and established differences in communication patterns with regard to the children's ages and the type of symbolic play. Found a shift in play from make-believe with regard to objects to roleplay related to social context. The older the child, the more language functions…

This study found that 16 preschoolers with Down's syndrome attained higher age equivalents and standard scores in "socialization" than did 16 preschoolers with autism. Adaptive age equivalent was positively related to chronological age for children with Down's syndrome in all domains, but only in "communication" for children with autism.…