In this article we analyse a didactical situation centred on the creation and use of a symbolic play environment in a class of pupils aged five and six years-old. The main source of data for this paper comes from an experimentation planned in relation to the following research question: does symbolic play in simulated contexts help pupils to…

The present study investigated the associations of Korean mothers' attention regulation and referential speech during play with their toddlers' language and play development. The play interaction between mothers (n = 42) and their toddlers aged between 13 and 23 months was videotaped during home visits. Maternal behavior in regulating their…

Playfulness steering is an emerging approach in educational game design and play. The integration of arithmetical computation, game strategy, and teamwork into one game allows players to interactively "steer" the playfulness and enhance learning. In this paper an evolutionary contest game was designed and implemented to examine the…

Play therapy is an effective means of responding to the mental health needs of young children and is widely accepted as a valuable and developmentally appropriate intervention. The authors discuss the importance of play in development, the therapeutic benefits of play, the rich history of play therapy, and recent research and current issues and…

Disproportionate representation of minority students in special education programs is a continuing issue of concern. A social emotional curriculum, the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS), was implemented in a classwide and curricular-integrated format with initial effects evaluated for 3 third-grade African American children…

In a South Dakota early childhood program, children and adults in the kindergarten classroom collaborated to build a "classroom zoo" in support of the children's pretend play. Creation of the zoo incorporated information about animals and zoos that the children and their families and teachers located in secondary sources such as…

Based on Moje et al.'s (2004) conceptions of "third space theory", this article describes how five nursery-aged children created a "third space" between home and school, in order to find continuity between home and school constructions of reading. This article describes how the children used various aspects of their home…

Although the term "risk-taking" often has negative connotations, the reality is that the willingness to engage in some risky activities provides opportunities to learn new skills, try new behaviours and ultimately reach our potential. Challenge and risk, in particular during outdoor play, allows children to test the limits of their…

Over the course of nine years as a supervisor of intern teachers, the first author collected observations of game play during lessons taught by intern teachers or their mentors. In general, the observations indicated that the majority of students got limited practice opportunities during game play. A close look at the data revealed an interesting…

This paper describes the use of quantities in video games by young people as part of a broader effort to understand thinking and learning across naturally occurring contexts of activity. Our approach to investigating the use of quantities in game play is ethnographic; we have followed eight children over a six-month period as they play their own…

The objective of the current study was to evaluate the patterns of longitudinal change in the language abilities of 28 children with autism during early and middle childhood. Results from fitting a series of multilevel models showed that children's rate of language growth was independently predicted by (a) children's responsiveness to others' bids…

This study examined the effects of a multicomponent social communication intervention to promote language learning and peer-directed social interactions in preschool children with disabilities. Participants were eight children with developmental disabilities who met the specified criteria for the study. The intervention consisted of three…

In the Early Childhood Education (ECE) field, the term Developmentally Appropriate Practice, otherwise known as DAP, has been defined many times and many ways. One aspect of DAP that has received recent attention is environment. Because of the accountability emphasis of the No Child Left Behind Act, environment is generally being approached in a…

This article describes how young children's early relationships with caregivers and other significant adults, such as teachers, do far more than introduce and mediate their literacy experiences. These relationships are the experience, and only with time and development do young children differentiate from these experiences the signs and symbols as…

Nature studies are an often overlooked part of healthy child development. Living in urban or suburban areas can present a big obstacle to studying the natural world with any authenticity or depth. Quite often, the only sense of nature children have is from picture books, stuffed animals, play sets, and nature programs on television and in…