Presents a counseling playlet "The Search" designed to reflect the problems that occur when negative behavior is overemphasized and the positive is overlooked. Discussion questions are included. (Author)

Leisure counseling focuses on identifying and removing blocks to play behavior.

The demand for knowledge of the educational issues related to services to the young child is increasing. Attempts to identify and describe four areas in which knowledge is available to the early childhood educator and lists some sources of further information on the subject. (Author/RK)

In a study of play activities, 60 middle-class children ages 2.8-5.8 were tested on six object substitution tasks. Three dealt with puzzle games and three with pretence games. Results confirm Sliosberg's original contention that pre-school children discriminate between pretence and realistic games. (Editor/RK)

Reviews five major developments in play therapy: psychoanalysis, release therapy, relationship therapy, nondirective therapy, and play therapy in school settings. Suggests ways school counselors can use play therapy. Describes play therapy facilities, location selection, and play materials. Lists objectives of play therapy and how teachers can aid…

Describes the use of sand play for counseling children. Reviews the development of using sand play to help disturbed children resolve traumas by externalizing fantasies and developing a sense of mastery and control over inner impulses. Illustrates the stages of chaos, struggle (organized fighting), and resolution. (ABB)

Reveals ways to help students learn that writing can be similar to play, in that they can use their imaginations to create new settings and even new worlds. Suggests using toys, imaginary trips, and including friends in stories as inspiration for writing. (SKC)

The assumption has been that because play, games, and sport are good, positive attitudes, behaviors, and values are inevitably transmitted. This article summarizes research on a variety of topics related to psychosocial correlates of physical activity and urges caution in the way claims are made. (MT)

Position paper argues in favor of developmentally appropriate kindergarten programs. Paper examines program goals and content, and provides suggestions about learning environment, curriculum, and staff. Includes statements concerning purpose of kindergarten, importance of play in learning, and need for program support. (PCB)

Children's ability to produce integrated sequences of discrete behaviors was examined as a function of age and task demands for several behavioral domains. Results are discussed in terms of possible age-related constraints on combinatorial skills that operate at a general, cross-domain level during toddlerhood. (RH)

Infants expressed more joy and looked longer at their mothers during a joy condition, and they showed more sadness, anger, and gaze aversion during a sadness condition. They engaged in more play behavior in the joy condition than in the sadness condition. Several significant relations between infants' gaze behavior, emotion expressions, and play…

Points out the benefits of "sciencing"--helping children learn the methodology and processes of scientific investigation through the use of play experimentation. (SKC)

Ten articles considering ways in which to help in the development of the whole child address play, childhood fears, making children feel loved, how parents can help children learn, decision making, peer pressure, competition, sports, and reading materials for adolescents. (CB)

Normally developing and mildly developmentally delayed preschool-age boys were brought together to form playgroups. Videotapes of the groups and peer sociometric ratings indicated that delayed children had a deficit in peer-related social interactions and were seen as less competent and of lower social status by peers. (PCB)

Indicates that subjects signalled play through such messages as overt invitations, nonverbal cues, abrupt topic changes, and outrageous or put-on utterances. Determines that the nature of these messages led to different types of episodes: play with, for, or at a partner. Finds that the signalling of play is often incomplete or taken for granted by…