Relationships among adult and young children's behavior in extended play encounters were examined. One group of normal six-year-old children completed 20 play encounters, while a second group of clinic-referred children completed 15 play encounters. Each child encountered either a trained/supervised or an untrained/unsupervised college…

Written for children ages ten through twelve, this book contains short stories and poems about play and safety by four boys and girls of ages seven to fourteen. Illustrations accompany the children's work. The book is intended to be read together by adult and child. Tips are provided for the children in assuring the safety of their younger…

A brief review is presented of the structural differences between play, games, and sport activities and the subjective experiences of young participants. Three contexts were examined--spontaneous play, informal games, and organized team sports. Findings suggested that patterns of experiences varied according to the context in which they occurred.…

This practical guide to infant-child day care offers suggestions for teaching in three areas: basic care, free play and guided learning. The Basic Care section contains information on dressing, eating, and other routines. The Free Play section discusses arranging materials, fostering creative and conceptual learning, and supervising group play…

This paper briefly reports on a series of studies that explore the relationship between symbolic or pretend modes of reasoning and cognitive processes which underlie conservation of quantity. It is hypothesized that the mental transformations which the child makes while playing a game of make-believe, namely, the transformation from his original…

This Early Childhood Curriculum Manual, one of four manuals based on approaches developed in the "Celebration in Learning '76" program, provides guidelines for block play activity to adults who work with young children. The first chapter introduces unit blocks, explores some of the problems teachers commonly face in the block area,…

Doll play activities were used to measure attitude change in 270 black, Mexican American, and white students who participated in a multicultural awareness project. The children, aged second through sixth grade, visited People Place Multicultural Center, where they experienced six different settings simulating the cultures of Africa, China,…

As part of a larger 1-year examination of the relationship between television viewing patterns and spontaneous play in nursery school, this study focuses on (1) the correlation between children's television viewing patterns in the home and their level of aggression in nursery school, and (2) specific factors within family settings that might…

Play intervention as an adjunct treatment for accelerating peer social interaction of a preschool isolate was examined. Teacher reinforcement of indoor play equipment utilization was employed as a procedure to increase an asocial four-year-old female subject's social interaction with peers. Touching peers, using peer names, verbalizations,…

This document on mother-infant interaction reports differences found between mothers in a parent education program and a control group. The parent education program provided two different informal methods of stimulating mothers' awareness of their influence on their children's learning and development. Both programs stressed maternal responsivity…

In this study, free play with toys having unambiguous functions was examined to test the hypothesis that a basic cognitive metamorphosis is associated with the new competences displayed in children at about 12 months. Functional play was observed in 64 children at 9 1/2, 11 1/2, 13 1/2, and 15 1/2 months of age. Six sets of toys with 36…

This paper briefly reviews studies of infant-peer and infant-mother interaction, and describes a study which compares the effects of mothers and peers on toddler play. Twenty-six toddlers (13 males and 13 females) aged 21 to 24 months were observed in two social situations each: playing with his/her mother, and playing with a familiar peer (after…

Although the material in this booklet is specifically designed for National Park Service employees, the subjects covered apply to all oral interpretive programs. The first chapter considers researching and writing the script and music and dance in the script; chapter 2 discusses settings, including speaking positions, decor, and properties;…

The changes in preschool children's effective play, affective involvement, and social interaction across a 6-month period of nursery school attendance were examined. Videotaping of the children's activities was done in January/February (pretesting) and May/June (posttesting). The result was a total of approximately 40 hours of tape covering many…

This conference paper attempts to describe some of the ecological conditions under which children's social behavior can be, and perhaps is, organized. Thirteen preschool children between 2-1/2 and 5-1/2 years of age, participated in several experiments with confederates acting as peers and with novel as well as familiar toys. Four behavior…