Presents guidelines for selecting materials for 6- to 8-year-olds in primary school settings involved in four categories of play: social and fantasy play; exploration and mastery play; music, art, and movement play; and gross motor play. Asserts that providing a variety of materials for children's independent activities pursued alone or with peers…

Examined associations among mothers' insightfulness into their 12-month-olds' internal experience as assessed through interviews regarding mothers' videotaped interaction with their infant, mothers' sensitivity to infant's signals during laboratory and home play sessions, and infant's security of attachment to mothers in the Strange Situation.…

Explores the question, What is the role of school grounds as sites for learning? Observation and interview data from five Australian primary schools displayed large differences between schools in the types of play that 8- to 10-year-old children engaged in, particularly play behaviors categorized as involving environmental cognition. Explores the…

Based on observation of 94 kindergartners and preschoolers for 3 months, this study examined changes in preschoolers' tendencies to play alone as a function of dispositional negative emotional intensity (DNEI) and changes in expressed negative emotions. Findings indicated higher emotional intensity, increased solitary play, and decreased…

Videotaped play segments between 15 4-month-old infants with their adolescent mothers and then with their fathers. Findings indicated that fathers' type of play was very similar to mothers' with the exception that fathers engaged in more social play. Fathers were found to be less sensitive than mothers to their infants' communications and fathers…

Safely driving a play vehicle requires many skills. This article offers several suggestions to parents on teaching preschoolers how to operate play vehicles safely and on pedestrian safety in general. A list of teaching aids for play vehicle safety, appropriate for parents and teachers, is included. (IAH)

Describes a therapy session with a father and son which began with a game of war and ended with a tea party. Discusses the session in terms of a transformation of angry behavior to responsible and sharing behavior. (RJC)

Investigated the acquisition of ideas about work on the part of 118 children in their sixth and seventh years of school. Children differentiated between adult work and children's work by identifying adult work as paid work and children's work as unpaid. (RJC)

The purposes of this study were to describe elementary school children's rough-and-tumble play vis-a-vis aggression and provide exploratory data on the functional significance of rough-and-tumble play. Results suggest that the incidence of rough-and-tumble play varied according to sex and playground location. (PCB)

The article describes how the creative use of "awareness plans" can empower teacher education students as learners and teachers. The approach makes use of concepts of metacognition and the value of play and humor and provides a formatted written exercise to increase self awareness. (DB)

Observed 62 children, 4- and 5-years-old, to determine the relation between negotiation and enactment in social pretend play and to indices of social acceptance and cognition. Negotiation and enactment were positively correlated and predicted peer social acceptance. Enactment predicted peer acceptance independent of negotiation. (RJC)

Modern playgrounds provide a system of linked play modules used with creative accessories to yield a series of interaction options for children. These designs offer opportunities for physical development, mental enhancement and imaginative play, and they are easy to maintain. (JD)

Children with mental retardation and multiple handicaps can effectively participate in play activities and games, but the experience must be structured for them. Techniques for organizing play activities involving handicapped and nonhandicapped children are offered. Examples of singles play, rotation play, and associative play are described. (JDD)

Provides instructions for making 14 different toys for infants from birth to 9 months. The toys are safe and stimulating, support specific aspects of infant development, and cost no more that $2 each to make. The instructions include toys made from fabric, toys made from plastic, and toys made with plastic, cardboard, and paper combined. (TJQ)

Normal and mentally retarded children were attentive to adults who showed distress, fear, and discomfort. Autistic children looked at adults less and engaged in more toy play than other children when adults pretended to be hurt. Autistic children were less attentive than normal children to adults who showed fear. (BC)