This book illuminates play as a universal and culture-specific activity. It provides needed information about the behavior of children in diverse cultural contexts as well as about the play of children in unassimilated cultural or subcultural contexts. It offers readers the opportunity to develop greater sensitivity to and better understanding of…

As part of a larger project which attempted to integrate students with severe disabilities into regular recreational and leisure activities, this study used a peer interest survey to identify popular recreation activities (and thus appropriate possibilities for the target population) across a variety of age groups. The survey was completed by 619…

A premise of this book for teachers of young children is that all learning should be challenging, interesting, and enjoyable. Chapters include: (1) A Philosophy for Early Education (concerning the nature of young children, learning contexts, societal expectations); (2) Child Development (concerning independence, self-esteem, cooperative…

Information, guidelines, and activities for jumping rope are given. A short history of jumping rope explains how it evolved from a spring ritual for men to a play activity involving mostly young girls. Physical and cultural reasons are given as to why jumping rope has been more a sport for girls than for boys. Research studies are noted which show…

The "back to basics" movement has mistakenly pushed drama to the periphery of the school program. Direct communication of verifiable facts, once again so valued, actually militates against the personal creation of meaning. Always subjective, meaning develops through individuals' active encounters with events or situations--never through…

One of a series of activity guides, this publication offers a variety of learning activities and resource materials for primary grade students. The activities and resources include: science activities; word puzzles and other puzzles; a flannelboard story; dramatic play exercises; arts and crafts activities; language arts activities; poems; outdoor…

Relationships between mothers' behaviors and (1) their children's verbal and nonverbal cognitive functioning, (2) their children's level of play, and (3) mothers' perceptions of their children's task motivation were investigated. Forty-four mothers and their preschool children from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds participated in the…

Reports a series of studies conducted to investigate possible differences in the exploratory manipulation and play behavior of human infants 7-1/2- 11-1/2 months of age as a function of the attributes of the stimulus, the familiarity of the subject with the stimuli, the age and sex of the infants, and individual differences. (Author/CS)

Suggestions are offered to practitioners on how to consider situational variables in the assessment and remediation of childhood language disorders. Eight sociolinguistic principles, derived from research on normally developing children, are presented. Among the principles are those which state that sociocultural patterns may vary as a function of…

This study assessed the extent to which the emergence and maintenance of peer group-status and behavior reflect the operation of group processes and individual processes. Of specific concern was whether support could be found for empirical relations derived from the self-perpetuation hypothesis. The study, which concerned the constructs of…

In this investigation, methodological and substantive issues regarding early mastery motivation (also termed competence motivation and effectance motivation) were examined longitudinally using a primarily middle-class sample of 37 children observed at 1 and 3.5 years of age. Data on cognitive competence and mastery motivation were collected in…

This paper describes the work of a teacher at the Heartwood Dance Center, a school of dance and related arts in rural Calhoun County, West Virginia. The teacher also conducts freelance workshops in local schools of the region, where people are isolated and incomes are generally low. The extent to which children are talented is partially dependent…

The first of a series of four, this booklet is designed to interest and involve 9- to 11-year-olds in learning about human development. "Fun to Grow On" focuses specifically on helping elementary school children share and enjoy some simple activities with preschool children. The activities are intended to teach older children that (1) each person…

The effects of uninstructed and teacher instructed cooperative group learning on the interactive behaviors of 32 nonhandicapped and 16 handicapped (moderately mentally retarded) elementary students and also on the attitudes of nonhandicapped students toward handicapped persons were investigated. In the teacher instructed condition, the teacher…

The annotated bibliography of over 1,200 citations published between 1943 and 1983 is intended as a comprehensive reference guide to the scientific study of infantile autism. After a search of the literature was conducted, the information was organized by format and subject, first for journal articles (19 topics are concerned with general…