Using nonhandicapped children (9 to 10 years old) in peer tutoring with 11 severely mentally handicapped children resulted in a significant increase in tutees' associative and cooperative play and a significant decrease in negative attention seeking and inappropriate behavior. (CL)

Aimed to provide an extensive and integrative review of empirical studies of pretend play in children. Attempts were made to sort out what is known from what is supposed but unconfirmed, and to identify the theoretical implications of the former and the relevance of the latter. (Author/RH)

Finds that (1) playfulness is a trait related to divergent, creative thinking; (2) allowing young children to play with objects can lead to increased performance on problem solving and divergent thinking tasks involving the same or similar objects; and (3) play training leads to short term gains in young children's cognitive performance.…

Discusses trends in the descriptive literature about children and the poor. Presents anecdotal material of children's spontaneous street play and analyzes cognitive skills exhibited in these situations. (Author/GC)

Evaluates the effects of an intensive period of dramatic play upon the cognitive structures of 12 three- to five-year-old children. (CM)

Two studies (one cross-sectional and one longitudinal) examined the relation between two developmental trends in play during the second year of life: the emergence of decentered acts, and the integration of separate acts into simple sequences. Subjects were infants aged 13, 19, and 24 months. (CM)

Discusses children as television viewers capable of manipulating the co-viewing setting by interpreting, constructing, and carrying out planned lines of play in relation to television and its content. Examples illustrate program-oriented and free-form improvisational play situations. (JMF)

The article describes procedures for developing and evaluating the pretend play of mentally handicapped children and provides illustrative case studies on the use of the observation scheme to evaluate children's progress. (SBH)

Investigated the occurence of language in the play of preschool children. Ninety-three percent involved playing with language sounds, and 7 percent with language structure. (Author/DB)

Review of the literature on issues concerning playground design and children's needs. (MP)

Mothers of 702 three year olds were asked about the use by their children of a special soft object in situations of distress and at bedtime. Object usage was then related to the children's levels of independence. (CM)

Whether aesthetic appreciation (defined as an individual emotional response enjoyed for itself without regard to future considerations or applications) can be translated into classroom experience is discussed. (RW)

Examined 3- to 5-year-olds' attributions of the mental states of television characters depicting make-believe or realistic actions. Found that children who identified when television characters were engaging in pretend play did not necessarily infer the pretenders' thoughts and beliefs. Inferring pretenders' thoughts was related to performance on…