First listing and discussing optimal features of playthings for early childhood education, this reference book subsequently describes play activities and equipment appropriate for infant and toddler day care programs as well as specially designed equipment for exceptional children. A chart indicating age-appropriate play and classroom equipment…

This preliminary edition of the International Directory of Child Development Research includes listings for 45 nations. Entries are grouped in the following sections: intranational organizations, international organizations, private institutes, and handicapped children. Names of contact persons, addresses, and institutional affiliations are…

The symbolic representational block constructions of twenty 4-year-olds and twenty 7-year-olds were analyzed from Werner and Kaplan's (1963) theoretical perspective. Each child was read a story and then asked to use the blocks to represent the story. Older children included in their representations a larger number of features that were central to…

The paper reports a project to create a play environment to discourage undesirable behaviors and encourage exploratory play behavior in severely and profoundly retarded institutional residents. It is explained that in addition to information gained from past experience, input from parents, direct-care staff, professionals, maintenance personnel,…

The objectives of this study were (1) to observe and describe the social quality and the cognitive type of spontaneous play exhibited in a group of 20 children in a child care setting during two age periods, toddler (14-30 months) and preschool (30-48 months), and (2) to chart the developmental trends using a model of play complexity derived from…

Educators may find activities for indoor and outdoor winter programs in the games of the traditional Eskimo. These games are dominated by few-step operations and low level structural organization. For the most part they are quickly organized, begun, terminated, and ready to be recommenced. All types of games can be found, including quiet ones,…

Creative dramatics or child-oriented dramatic play is a basic educative process that draws upon the learning strategies developed in children's play and relates them to classroom learning tasks. As a structured play process that encourages children to explore the world in ways familiar to them, creative dramatics relates new experiences to old…

This report reviews research related to effects of the amount and quality of early peer group interaction on the social and cognitive development of young children and briefly describes a preschool playgroup program for geographically isolated Australian families. Research suggests that children from isolated rural areas may perform more poorly…

An analysis of presently existing research indicates a strong relationship between the culture of the black community (which is traceable to an African heritage), childrearing practices of black families, and the learning and expressive styles of black children. In this paper key studies are reviewed that provide information on cognitive styles…

Various procedures for training parents to be play therapists for their own young children are described. In their play encounters with the child parents learn ways of being with the child that show empathy and caring as well as the way their playroom actions toward the child reflect their own conflicts as persons and spouses. This describes a…

Researchers have studied both competence levels and competence motivation in children. Competence motivation is usually assessed in terms of children's spontaneous preferences for optimal cognitive challenge, but actual spontaneous preferences in free play have seldom been used to assess motivation. In fact, competence level and competence…

Observations made by kindergarten teachers of their children and the researchers' observations of the same children were used in this study to examine the impact of television cartoons on children's free play behavior. Sixty-five kindergarten children and their teachers (N=18) were studied. Each child was individually interviewed and was asked the…

This Early Childhood Curriculum Manual, one of four manuals based on approaches developed in the research and demonstration program, "Celebration in Learning '76" (CIL), was designed for adults who work with young children and who wish to expand children's use of table toys in the classroom. The first chapter explores what is meant by…

This trainer's guide is designed for day care center directors and others responsible for teacher training and parent education who wish to develop and present workshops based on the manual, "Table Toys - A Creative Curriculum for Early Childhood." The guide is divided into six sections, called "sessions," which correspond to…

This paper examines aspects of role playing in young children focusing specifically on the importance of role playing, the components of role playing and how to use role playing. The importance of role playing is discussed and several reasons for believing that role playing is related to intellectual and social development and to learning language…