Recognizing the importance of teaching based on young children's interests, this book describes the High Scope Demonstration Preschool approach to helping teachers plan early childhood education learning activities, based on specific observations of children, rather than a predetermined set of topics. Each chapter includes the following sections:…

Based on the view that play builds the foundation for lifelong learning, this 3-volume set of videotapes (in English and Spanish versions) with accompanying facilitators guide depicts a wide variety of parents/caregivers playing with infants and toddlers to highlight the importance of playing and interacting in ways that support and expand…

Examines the growth of understanding of citizenship in young children, particularly children's grasp of rules of school life. Explores development of citizenship by studying children's representations of school life and adult-child relationships in pretend play. Touches upon Dewey's, Piaget's, and Vygotsky's theories of child development. (BGC)

Examines and defines the world of play for children and considers what lessons and applications this might have for adults and their spirituality. Particularly notes that the "what-if" and "as-if" dimensions of play can be used as energizing and liberating aspects of a more active adult spirituality. (MJP)

This is a case study of a conflict management intervention in two secondary schools in post-apartheid South Africa. The feature of the intervention that we examine is the use of play as an educational strategy. The literature attests that play can facilitate change by allowing learners freedom to change their behaviour and opportunities to explore…

Research Findings: This study examined the stability of preschoolers' peer play behavior across the school year and the relations between emotion regulation, receptive vocabulary, and the trajectory of social competence deficits. Participants were 331 preschool children attending Head Start; they were primarily African American and from a low-SES…

A structural equation model was used to examine the role of autonomous mobility and play in public and semipublic places in childhood to predict adolescents' sense of community, fear of crime, and, through the mediation of these two last psychosocial factors, feelings of loneliness. Participants included 789 Italian students (469 females and 320…

Plagued by one of the most overweight populaces in the country, the state of West Virginia was looking for a solution to its obesity problem that would appeal to the school-age crowd. It turned to Linda Carson, a professor at West Virginia University's School of Physical Education. Carson recalled witnessing kids lining up in an arcade to play a…

This paper describes how the occupational therapist's looking at the child and his/her play could build a basic history of the subjects, providing the occupational therapist with clues to guide his/her proposed assistance. The authors understand the activity of play as a dimension that enables the subject to creatively establish contact with…

Playing games, particularly pretense games, is one of the areas where young children first enter into collective, conventional practices. This chapter reviews recent empirical data in support of this claim and explores the idea that games present a cradle for children's growing into societal and institutional life more generally. (Contains 2…

Recent developments in the Queensland early childhood context have seen the phased-in introduction of a full-time Preparatory Year to replace current part-time preschool provision. Surrounding this development has been discussion of the potential role of the play-based Early Years Curriculum in shaping the implementation of early primary…

Educators and occupational therapists regard play as a primary occupation of childhood, which in the case of children with special needs has not been well studied. The aim of this descriptive study was to observe the free-play behaviour of children with special needs in both special education and mainstream education settings. The Revised…

This study examines the interrelationships among art, play and "real" life, as perceived by young children. Twenty-one children aged four and five in their first year of formal schooling in Ireland, were observed during art-related play activities and classes over a period of four months in 2004. Research data consisted of art works…

This article reports on the findings of a small-scale investigation into the views of children on potential changes to the playground in a large primary school. As a parent, midday supervisor and member of the school Grounds Development Committee I was interested in how views gathered to underpin change to the playground of one school might fit…

The contribution that physical education (PE) and school sport can make to a child's development has long been known. Aspects such as becoming physically fit and healthy, demonstrating safe practice, achieving personal and team goals and working with the wider community are just some of an extensive list of opportunities that engagement in…