The intent of this study was to examine the development of three aspects of preschoolers' private speech: coefficients of egocentricism, the extent to which speech regulates actions, and the syntactic and semantic structures of individual utterances. Forty-one randomly chosen preschoolers (26 females, 15 males) were placed in three age groups (3,…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the preschool teacher in dealing effectively with aggression in the classroom setting. First, assertiveness, aggression and hostility are differentiated and theories of aggression are reviewed. Subsequently, social, home, family, and temperamental factors influencing aggressive behavior of…

A profile of the attitudes and environment of the child from an impoverished family is drawn, illustrating the factors that inhibit such a child in developing creative problem-solving skills. The attitudes and atmosphere of the poverty home and culture are outlined. It is pointed out that limited vocabulary and low motivation are typical of such…

Written for children ages six to nine, 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. Ten safety notes are included and space is provided for the child to write his/her…

The purpose of this book is to help parents and teachers recognize and understand dramatic play in childhood as a process whereby the child acts out human experience in an attempt to order, clarify, and understand it. Written by a person experienced in theatre and drama, the book considers the following aspects of dramatic play: the importance of…

This book presents a discussion and analysis of various theories of play behavior. The book is divided into 12 chapters. The first chapter delineates 3 criteria (intrinsic motivation, suspension of reality or make-believe, and internal locus of control) that distinguish play from nonplay behavior. Chapter 2 reviews scientific research on the…

Abstracts of 40 selected books and articles on the topic of interactions between children and their environments are provided in this document. Works abstracted were selected from a pool of over 1200 items. The abstracts are organized into five categories: (1) theories of child care and play; (2) child-environment research; (3) descriptions of…

The paper explores the social and cultural processes in the schooling rituals of graduate students in anthropology. Four areas of concern are noted. The first area concerns rites of passage and professional competence. The author explains that the period of graduate professional schooling represents the second stage of a rite of passage after one…

This guide for teachers provides both suggestions for teaching high school students about parenting young children and questions and answers extracted from 10 books that focus on parenting and related topics. Among the topics discussed are self esteem, play, sex fairness, child development, nutrition, equality in marriage, pregnant students, and…

The PREP Program Field Test Project had four major objectives: the development, implementation, and formative evaluation of an inservice training package designed to help teachers of young moderately mentally handicapped children implement an individualized instruction play program based on the PREP Program motor development materials and methods;…

This collection of papers, nineteenth in a series of 20 documents completed by the Children's Environments Advisory Service for the International Year of the Child, 1979, reports on the proceedings of an international symposium held by The Child in the City Programme at the University of Toronto under UNESCO sponsorship, in June 1979. Delegates…

Teacher reinforcement of indoor play equipment utilization was employed as a procedure to increase the peer social interaction of an asocial four-year-old female child. Touching peers, using peers' names, verbalizations, solitary or parallel manipulation, cooperative construction, and cooperative thematic play were dependent variables. Treatment…

This longitudinal study of the development of nonverbal behavior in the first 3 years of a child's life focuses on four factors: the relation between physical and vocal interaction between the child and his mother, observed cuses which can be used to interpret the child's communicative intent at different age levels, frequency of occurrence and…

This study investigated the relationship between cognitive style and the use of play areas in the nursery school. The participants were 28 preschool children (13 girls and 15 boys) attending the Laboratory Nursery School at the University of California at Davis. Each child was observed for 12 one-hour sessions over a 10-week period. A time…

This paper reports an exploratory investigation of motor patterns characteristic of maternal gameplaying behavior conducted with forty-eight 4-, 6- and 8-month-old infants and their mothers. Videotapes of 6-minute laboratory mother-infant play sessions were segmented into maternal games which were categorized according to the type and complexity…