Content analysis of children's Halloween costumes explored how children's fantasy dress reproduces and reiterates conventional gender messages. Both male and female costumes contained high proportions of heroes. Feminine costumes were clustered in a narrow range depicting traditional femininity, with higher proportions of animals and foodstuffs.…

Describes drama teacher Carl Martin's "Home Shakespeare Festival," a series of games that enable non-actors to tackle Shakespeare with little preparation and no training, using Martin's instructions, pared-down scripts, basic toy props, and tip sheets. Describes how Martin's games came to be and discusses their use in a variety of…

Examined processes by which 4- and 5-year-olds initiate, organize, and maintain language play interactions. Found that as children voice incongruities of greater proportion, the emotional climate of play is heightened and ingenious verbal representations are provoked. Identified developmental features of hyperbolic language play. Contextualized…

Puppet script training was used to teach the social skills of greeting, responding to conversations, and initiating conversations to a preschool child with visual impairments. A single-case study using a multiple-baseline design demonstrated that the intervention increased performance of social skills during recess with peers. (Author/MKA)

Discusses arts based research/alternative forms of representation. Discusses creating drama as a form of research and describes the author's own work in "collective creation/play building" with a research based Theatre-In-Education program to demonstrate that some of the practices employed in educational drama can be considered a…

The variability in the play of 30 preschool children with cognitive delays associated with different toy sets (vehicle, doll, and mixed toy sets) was examined. Sex differences emerged for only 4 of 12 play behaviors: exploration, pretend, ordered multischeme sequences, and global play sophistication. (Author/CR)

Examines 16 preschoolers' classroom literacy behaviors. Studies one student's literacy activities at home. Finds book-related dramatic play to be an important part of children's literacy interactions. Indicates each instance could be described in terms of scope of play, type of connection, purposes for play, perspective explored, sign systems…

Used interviews to examine mothers' satisfaction with London play services provided specifically for disabled school children and those provided for children in general. Found a high level of satisfaction, with play services seen as providing respite and benefits such as play, companionship, and varied experiences for children. Problems included…

Provides specific steps and techniques for teaching and using creative dramatics in elementary school classrooms. Notes that creative dramatics address children's powerful emotions and imaginations, which children rely on to explore and understand the world. Discusses four necessary components of creative dramatics--structure, open-endedness, a…

Explores how child care providers can use outdoor activities to enhance young children's cognitive, social, emotional, and motor development. Discusses surveying the outdoor play space, using outdoor prop boxes, planting a garden, and reflecting on outdoor experiences after moving indoors. Includes list of sample outdoor play materials and sample…

The automatically reinforced self-injury of a girl (age 11) with autism was treated by providing noncontingent access to a single set of preferred toys during 30-minute sessions. Rotating toy sets after 10 minutes or providing access to multiple toy sets resulted in reductions that lasted the entire 30 minutes. (Contains four references.)…

Using a case study, discusses the "seductive environment," a virtual environment of popular culture in which the human mind is seduced and turned into a "hungry ghost." Examines ideas about possible solutions through art therapy. Reviews the value of the creative process, contemplation, and Winnicott's idea of play. (Contains…

Investigated how 50 preschoolers evaluated the appropriateness of excluding boys and girls from two types of activities and two types of future roles across different exclusion contexts. Found that straightforward gender-based exclusion was judged wrong. Decisions were justified on the basis of moral reasons. However, children used both moral and…

A review of 11 single-subject research studies designed to enhance the object-related play of youths with mental retardation found that positive outcomes in the form of improved play behaviors were consistently reported across intervention type. The responsiveness of participants to intervention suggests a need for research to determine the most…

Examined peer-related social interactions of preschool children with communication disorders. Found that subjects engaged in fewer positive social interactions and conversed with peers less often during nonplay activities than did normal peers, were less successful in their social bids, and appeared to be less directive with their peers. However,…