Discusses the role of language in drama in education. Examines the levels at which drama can enhance learning and understanding of language: social, symbolic, and reflective. (HTH)

Children between the ages of 19 and 41 months were videotaped with a peer in a standardized playroom for four 15-minute sessions in order to examine a developmental model describing the relation between changes in pretense (pretend play, transformations, and communications) and changes in peer-oriented social behavior. (MP)

Through the process of manipulating language through speech play, young children learn the rules of their linguistic system. Metalinguistic awareness implies access to the rule system of language and the ability to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable language usage. (JN)

To investigate the extent to which free play versus a sequenced questioning paradigm facilitated preschoolers' associative fluency, 36 children were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: free play, questioning, or control, and asked to articulate novel uses for conventional objects. Responses in the questioning condition were significantly…

Described are 16 rainy day activities which can be played in the classroom or adapted to the outdoors when the rain clears. The material for this article was taken from the book "Galaxy of Games, Stunts, and Activities for Elementary Physical Education." (KC)

Significant correlations were found between mean play scores obtained on each play scale and the developmental level of the children. Results indicated that the collateral relationship of play to mental development found in preschool-aged nonretarded children may also be seen in young mentally retarded children. (Author)

The literature review discusses studies which have been conducted to determine whether television enriches a child's imagination or leads to distortions of reality, and whether adult mediation during a child's television viewing or immediately after can evoke constructive changes or stimulate make-believe play. Thirty-six references are cited.…

Jane Addams, founder of Hull House and proponent of cultural and physical recreation programs, contributed greatly to current recreation and leisure time programs. Her contributions include: (1) a view that recreation programs could organize and structure social life; (2) a recreation philosophy that proposed to unite urbanites and to express…

Today's children are being forced to achieve more and at an earlier age than ever before in society. Previously "natural" rites of passage into adulthood come too early for children, and they often do not get the chance to appreciate and experience the highly important period of life called childhood. (CJ)

Delinquents' patterns of play may be used as the context for teaching youths to adapt to societal demands. Games are uniquely self-reinforcing. The game preferences and behavior of delinquents are seen to differ from those of nondelinquents and may be used as the focus of a planned program of treatment. (Author)

Forty-eight middle-class, White preschool children from divorced families and a matched group from nondivorced families were studied. Though initially both boys and girls from divorced families showed adverse post-divorce behavioral effects, these effects were more enduring among the boys. (Author/GC)

Examines the relationship between cognitive functioning (as measured by the Bayley Scales of Infant Development) and the symbolic play levels of Down's syndrome children. Symbolic play level was more highly correlated with mental age than with chronological age. Performance on the Infant Behavior Record was also highly correlated with symbolic…

Investigates the amount of time that children in same-age v mixed-age groups spend in various forms of social participation, and analyzes the age relationships of children in mixed-age groups. Subjects were three classes of three-year-olds, three classes of four-year-olds, and three mixed-age classes. (Author/CM)

Examined various ways Black, low-income preschool children transform reality into fantasy during free play. Approximately one-half of the girls' and one-third of the boys' utterances represented fantasy transformations, the most frequent of which were animation, reification, and situational attribution. Found significant effects related to sex of…

Assesses children's responsiveness to adults of both sexes as a function of the adult's behavior. Among the results, children showed a greater responsiveness to the same-sex adult in the collaboration condition and to the cross-sex adult in the praise condition. (Author/RH)