To determine whether children with sensorimotor handicaps follow the developmental sequence of normal children in interactions with adults, toys, and peers, time sampling observations were made of self-, teacher-, toy-, and peer-directed behaviors of 36 handicapped preschool children. These children were assigned to three classrooms according to…

This Child Development Associate (CDA) training module shows interns how to make the most of children's interest in playing with blocks. Objectives are stipulated, activities for achieving each objective are suggested, and an assessment checklist is provided. A study guide emphasizes (1) values of block play, (2) physical space for block building…

The proceedings of the 2nd annual Pittsburgh Conference on Art Therapy (with handicapped persons) consists of 44 items including full length papers, summaries of previously published papers, descriptions of workshops, and a limited number of abstracts (submitted by those who chose not to present a paper or workshop description). The papers are…

This study investigates the interaction of three cognitive (functional, constructive, dramatic) and three social (solitary, parallel, group) dimensions of free play activities and their stability over time among boys and girls in a preschool setting. Subjects were 18 children attending a university preschool in Southwestern Ontario. Data for each…

Three studies were conducted with three groups of eighteen autistic children (3-11 years old) matched by age and IQ to developmental aphasic Ss to examine the nature of the cognitive deficit underlying autism. Two experiments were concerned with language comprehension using real and anomalous sentences, while the third investigation was an…

In this study, each of 33 middle class children from grades 3 and 4 was administered one of three experimental conditions designed to test in what ways coaching in social play skills improves the sociometric status of the children with their peers. The subjects were selected because of their low ratings on sociometric questionnaires. Condition 1…

Dramatic play, an activity for which children show a natural inclination, provides kindergarten children with the opportunities for acquiring new vocabulary, extending word meaning, acquiring and practicing verbal expression and syntactical patterns, and gaining in language facility. In order to foster this language development, kindergarten…

This book is about using movement, shape, color, texture, rhythm, sounds, and words to express ideas, attitudes, and feelings. It is about learning to be open to one's feelings and the feelings of others. The first four chapters deal with questioning, groundwork, and evaluation; they discuss such topics as arranging space, teacher participation,…

This paper, a discussion of papers by Robert S. Randall, Greta Fein, Richard Bauman and Murray Newman, looks at informal learning from an anthropological viewpoint with an emphasis on inversive theory. It is suggested that the irrational elements of informal learning, the combinations of order and disorder, allow children to relate to reality by…

The contents of this booklet focus on effective techniques for using dramatics in the classroom and are based on the premise that drama can integrate all skills and help to avoid fragmentation in learning. Chapters discuss motivating the dreamers in the classroom, curriculum dramatics--eclectic teaching, training the teacher, transforming the…

This book explores sociodramatic play as a potential compensatory tool for educationally disadvantaged children. The author examines the antecedents of educational disadvantagement and develops a rationale for the use of sociodramatic play. She places sociodramatic play in perspective as a particular stage of play behavior and further investigates…

This book presents a study of cognitive-affective interdependence as shown in children's fantasy behavior. The systems of Piaget and Freud are the foundation of analysis. The study data consist of approximately one hundred verbatim recordings of the dramatic play of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds (in groups or alone) collected by trained teachers in a…

This volume contains two manuals (Russian and Israeli) designed for workers who are responsible for day-to-day group care of very young children on a broad-scale basis. The Russian manual gives detailed descriptions of children's play and activity in the first three years of life, reemphasizing the role of caretaker as teacher. The Israeli manual…

This book embodies the concept that the dynamic interplay of experiences and activities remains part of the child's functioning throughout life and that it is the role of adults to establish, where they can, the forms of activity in which children will engage. The chapters describe various contents for such activities and discuss how adults can…

A study was conducted to examine social behavior by one-year-old boys over the course of a three-month playgroup experience. The "clusters" chosen for examination consisted of temporary groups (often less than a minute) the toddlers formed to focus on a single activity. Socially directed behavior is defined here as vocalizing, laughing and…