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)

This document addresses itself to the broad topic of recent structural approaches to personality development and to the major research problem of structural consistency and change in young children's social behaviors. As part of a larger longitudinal study, the author assessed the classroom personal-social development of economically disadvantaged…