Play has been difficult to define because it is an aspect of many activities rather than of just a specific kind of activity. Classic theorists such as Piaget and Vygotsky emphasized representational play as play in its purist form, but both immediate and ultimate functions of play can be discerned in simple physical activity play. (Author)

Play provides young children with the opportunity to express their ideas, symbolize, and test their knowledge of the world. It provides the basis for inquiry in literacy, science, social studies, mathematics, art, music, and movement. Through play, young children become active learners engaged in explorations about themselves, their community, and…

Quality schoolyards provide opportunities for the physical challenges, exercise, sensory play, fantasy play, organized sports, and unsupervised free play that allow for healthy, well-rounded development. Schoolyards should be safe places where children practice social skills and develop an appreciation for the feelings of others and the…

Australian children from disadvantaged families are at increased risk of delays in acquiring fundamental movement skills, with physical inactivity and increased risk of the potential consequences of obesity. The aims of this pilot study were to: 1) assess the fundamental movement skills of disadvantaged children; 2) evaluate the feasibility and…

Injuries are the leading cause of death to young children in rural Australia, with drowning in farm dams being a major risk. This paper assesses the impact of an intervention to increase safe play areas on farms to prevent unsupervised access by young children to water bodies and other hazards. Surveys of 1,117 adult farmers attending Ag Quip…

This inquiry applied Bakhtin's dialogic process to the pretend play of preschool children using an interpretive approach. It used vignettes from videotaped data and Bakhtin's theories of dialogism and heteroglossia to provide an understanding of how children appropriate social roles and rules in pretend play and use a variety of "voices"…

With the implementation of the natural approach, the dinosaur study and facilitated block play gave dual language learners many opportunities to acquire a new language, develop social skills, and improve communication abilities. Once teachers identified the barriers to children playing and talking together, they created a classroom environment…

This study aimed to analyze the effects of an intervention strategy during the school recess on physical activity (PA) levels, by gender, age and body mass index (BMI). The sample comprises 158 Portuguese children aged 6 to 12 years. Weight and height were objectively measured. PA was assessed by accelerometry during the recess in pre-intervention…

This study is an examination of preschool-age English speaking children's interactive play behaviours with a non-English speaking child (NEC). The play types of a NEC were reported using the Parten's categories of solitary, parallel and interactive play. In addition, English-speaking children's interactive play with a NEC were reported in this…

Social learning theory, sociodramatic play, and the use of puppets and stuffed animals may be beneficial for improving social behaviors of preschoolers with and without disabilities. Therefore, this action research study is developed on the belief that a stuffed animal (Bob Bear) will enhance appropriate behaviors for preschool children when used…

The aim of this review was to examine systematically the evidence for the application of interactive computer play in the rehabilitation of children with sensorimotor disorders. A literature search of 11 electronic databases was conducted to identify articles published between January 1995 and May 2008. The review was restricted to reports of…

In this article, semiotic analysis of children's practices and designs with video game conventions considers how children use play and drawing as spatializing literacies that make room to import imagined technologies and user identities. Microanalysis of video data of classroom interactions collected during a three year ethnographic study of…

Students enter the geometry classroom with a strong concept of fairness and a sense of what it means to "play by the rules," yet many students have difficulty understanding the postulates, or rules, of geometry and their implications. Although they may never have articulated the properties of an axiomatic system, they have gained a practical…

The aims of the present study are to examine whether preschool children's scores on a standardized test of vocabulary mediate or moderate the relation between shyness and reticence and to test whether any influence of vocabulary would be found for both teacher and parent assessments of shyness. Participants were 108 children (50 males), mean age,…

To test divergent theoretical predictions as to the impact of having a younger or older, same-sex sibling or opposite-sex sibling on other gender constancy, Israeli kindergarten children in two-child families responded to a gender constancy task in which a male and female picture target engaged in counter-stereotypic toy play and adopted…