Play therapy and filial therapy show promise as effective ways to provide direct services to Head Start, addressing the needs of the children, the families, and the Head Start teachers and staff. Examines the utility of play and filial therapies for the Head Start population, presents a systemic explanation for the benefit of filial therapy, and…

Presents a theory of pretense in which pretense representations are contained in a separate mental workspace, a Possible World Box, part of the basic architecture of the human mind with several similarities to beliefs. Maintains that pretend play is motivated from a desire to act in a way that fits the description being constructed in the Possible…

Examined young children's play interactions and beliefs in inclusive preschool settings. Found a tendency for children without disabilities to engage in more cooperative play and less solitary play and on-looking behavior than their peer with disabilities. Found a high level of similarity between the two groups in choice of free play activities.…

The relationship between playfulness and creativity was examined among preschoolers in Japan. Statistical data analysis indicated no relationship between playfulness and creativity. Because teachers described some non-playful children as playful because of an internal playfulness that manifested in one-on-one interaction, qualitative data analysis…

We examined the effects of a video modeling intervention on social initiation and play behaviors with 3 children with autism using a multiple baseline across subjects design. Each child watched a videotape showing a typically developing peer, and the experimenter engaged in a simple social interactive play using one toy. For all children, social…

Is an aesthetic experience ever achieved in a creative drama class or in attending a performance of a children's play? If it is, how does one know and how can it be achieved? This article is the authors' personal account of revisiting memories of her passion for theatre in all its forms (first as a child and years later as a teacher) in the light…

This month, "The Early Years" is focusing on magnets. The predicting and testing students do in this month's activity also relate to "Science and Children's" theme this issue, teaching the nature of science. Magnets are typically included in early childhood science curriculums because they are irresistible to children. Also, understanding that…

Background: We investigated the play behaviours of children with autism. Cognitive and social levels of play engaged in by 4- to 8-year-old children with autism spectrum disorders were examined in naturalistic classroom settings. In addition, play at home was compared with play at school via mother and educator questionnaires. Method: Seventeen…

The purpose of this study was to examine how total duration of social play of preschool children with disabilities varied as a function of both chronological and developmental age of their social partners. Fifty-five 33- to 60-month-old children with mild to moderate developmental delays were observed in dyadic play situations with four different…

The simultaneous publication of Steven Johnson's Everything Bad is Good for You and appearance of media reports of X-rated content in the popular game Grand Theft Auto has renewed controversies surrounding the social effects of computer and video games. On the one hand, videogames scholars argue that videogames are complex, cognitively challenging…

This article explores how Swedish children relate to adult discussions and rules concerning children's play and television habits. It is argued that the children interviewed are well aware of adult ideas concerning children, TV and play. In accounting for these rules, the children present themselves as regulated by adults, but also as valuable to…

An important issue for understanding early cognition is why very young children's real-world representations do not get confused by pretense events. One possible source of information for children is the pretender's behaviors. Pretender behaviors may vary systematically across real and pretend scenarios, perhaps signaling to toddlers to interpret…

Kindergarten children's perception of play is a reflection of their life and experiences, which can be used as an index of the quality of pre-school provision and the influence of kindergarten education reform that began in the 1980s in mainland China. Therefore, based on this hypothesis, the current authors argue that to examine young children's…

In this interpretive study of children's social interactions in a family child care setting, children were seen to spend a significant portion of their time playing, watching others play, and distracted by video games. When children were focused on video games, their interactions with one another were disjointed, rushed, and ineffective. Because…

In this article the author examines the intimate connections between utopia and education in Frankfurt School critical theory. Although substantial links have been made in the critical pedagogy tradition between education, critique, and utopian dreaming, an in-depth analysis of the utopia-education matrix in the works of Herbert Marcuse, Theodor…