TWO MAIN METHODS OF APPROACH IN UNDERSTANDING THE SCHOLASTIC FAILURE OF CULTURALLY DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN WERE--THE USE OF SUCH TEACHING METHODS AS TEXTBOOKS, WORKBOOKS, TEACHERS' GUIDEBOOKS, AND OTHER TEACHING AIDS SUITED TO THE SPECIAL NEEDS OF THESE CHILDREN, AND THE USE OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE KINDERGARTEN LEVEL AIMED AT FINDING WAYS TO DEVELOP…

The booklet considers ways of developing new playground areas that are accessible to all children and adapting existing areas to make them suitable for use by handicapped and nonhandicapped children alike. Criteria for selecting equipment includes the interests and needs of the users; the movement needs of children (including movement involving…

The purpose of this study was to longitudinally examine the development of symbolic play in 2-year-old Japanese infants. The subjects were four children who were individually tested once a month from the age of 12 to 24 months in laboratory settings. Assessment materials consisted of three sets of miniature toys, a doll and junk objects. Each set…

Evaluative intervention studies which have examined the potential of imaginative play to foster young children's cognitive and social development provide the focus of this literature review. Four criteria were used to select the studies: (1) the study's focus was on the use of imaginative play to foster cognitive growth; (2) the studies were…

The functional theories of James Britton and M.A.K. Halliday are compatible in that they both (1) view language use as functional and situationally determined; (2) recognize a developmental process that involves learning the rules of use of the mature functions; (3) recognize a participatory role of language for doing and a spectatorial role for…

This study examined the use of directive speech forms by 46 children 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-years of age as a function of different tasks (play with dolls versus play with colored stickers) and of the presence versus absence of a peer partner. Directive utterances were stimultaneously categorized according to structure, form and the person they…

This document contains the transcripts from a workshop to investigate strategies to use in dealing with violence on children's television. The papers given by outside experts include: (1) "Effect of Television Violence on Children and Youth" by Michael Rothenberg, (2) "Implications of the Psychological Effects of Television…

This paper emphasizes the importance of educational activities for small children and discusses the issues and problems associated with choice of educational objectives and activity content. Three factors which influence the formation of educational objectives are identified: (1) tradition, (2) specific character of socio-economic conditions in…

The physical development of the child from 4 to 6 years old is discussed. Activities and games that will increase the child's dexterity, balance, and ability to play with others are described and illustrated. (JD)

This study examined the ways in which the spontaneous imaginative play and other social behaviors of 3- and 4-year-old children are affected by the frequency and patterns of their television viewing. The subjects were 141 children from predominantly white middle class homes. Pretesting was done to get an estimate of IQ (Peabody Picture Vocabulary…

ALTHOUGH IT IS ASSUMED THAT PLAY THERAPY IS BENEFICIAL TO CHILDREN, LITTLE RELEVANT RESEARCH DATA IS AVAILABLE CONCERNING THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF ITS EFFECTIVENESS. THE EXISTING PAUCITY OF RESEARCH INFORMATION CONCERNED WITH PLAYROOM BEHAVIOR IS ATTRIBUTABLE TO (1) THE INADEQUATE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF RELEVANT THEORY AND OF THE SITUATIONAL…

This series of 200 simple learning activities parents can use with their children at home is printed on 6" x 8" index cards, and arranged in six sections: (1) "Helper" cards give hints on handling behaviors such as whining, jealousy and fighting; (2) "While Your Work" cards list activities a child can do as the parent…

This paper attempts to justify the need for research and development in the area of systematic design of genuinely instructional play activities. A discussion of why free play should not be included in curriculum plans is presented as well as a brief discussion of the political problems of including fully educational play as an instructional tool.…

Sixty second grade children were randomly assigned to same sex pairs and each pair was randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: aggressive cartoon, nonaggressive cartoon, and no cartoon. Results indicated that there was no difference among the groups on measures of interpersonal aggression although boys exhibited significantly more…

With reference to the need for delineation of parameters operative in children's play, the position preferences of four groups of nursery school subjects were studied in a laboratory playroom. A large and small trestle were interchanged between center and corner positions in a series of play sessions. The frequency with which the subjects used…