The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Play Practice (PP) instruction on the performance of table tennis skills. Fifty-six college students in four intact classes were taught by two instructors using PP and Skill-focused Instruction (SI). A nonequivalent control/comparison group experimental design with pre and post measures was…

After the moral framework of sustainable development, the focus on climate change appears to take a lead in the practice and theory of environmental education. Inherent in this perspective is an apocalyptic message: if we do not rapidly change our use of energy resources, we will severely harm the life conditions of our children and grandchildren.…

A modified multiple-baseline design across participants was used to evaluate a procedure for teaching the mand "Where?" to 3 children with autism. The participants were 3 and 5 years old and were participating in an intensive applied behavior analysis program. The participants were able to mand for items they wanted when the items were not in…

This study reports on the relationship between motor stereotypies and impairments in executive functions (EF) in children with Autistic Disorder (AD) and in children with Developmental Language Disorders (DLD). We hypothesized that low EF performance would predict higher frequency and longer durations of stereotypies in the AD group only.…

Many countries face a growing debate on the balance between ensuring children's safety and allowing children to play in physically and emotionally stimulating and challenging environments. This study is theoretically and conceptually situated within this debate, focusing on how early childhood education and care (ECEC) practitioners perceive the…

The study explored the nature of the interactive play behaviours of children with albinism and children without albinism and compared the interactive behaviours of both children with albinism and children without albinism. Naturalistic observations were conducted during periods of free play, using the interactive play behaviour checklist aided by…

This paper presents a study of learning experiences in peer conflicts among two- and three-year-olds in Dutch daycare centres. Data were collected from individual sampling of 96 children during their free play. As in earlier studies, the results we obtained showed that three-year-olds used fewer unilateral strategies and more bilateral strategies…

It is easy to understand that fun is one of the key ingredients to any playground activity. But what one may not realize is that play systems--including slides, tunnels, activity panels, and more--encourage a lot more than just fun: there is learning at work in playground play, as well as the opportunity to include children of all abilities in…

The author visited the Open Spaces Preschool in Whangarei, New Zealand and was surprised to see the most amazing natural preschool play. There were six preschoolers stripped down to tee shirts and underpants slipping, slopping, and sliding in the dirt spot which had now become the most lovely, silky-smooth deep-brown mud ever. Studies have…

One of the author's biggest challenges as a preschool teacher is helping children in a group see and touch and do. Hands-on explorations are important for everyone, but essential for young children. How can young children do hands-on explorations of spiders and their webs? Teachers do not want children handling all sorts of spiders. They worry…

The siphon is a very useful example of early technology, the operation of which has long been well understood. A recent article makes the claim that established beliefs regarding this device are incorrect and proposes a "chain model" in which intermolecular forces within the fluid play a large role while atmospheric pressure does not. We have…

The purpose of this article is to raise the profile of play so that it is an important domain of concern for serving children with delays and disabilities, just as are the other five domains specified in federal law. A rationale for the integration of the behavioral perspective and the constructivist perspective is presented to contribute clarity…

Research on the relationship between play and early literacy flourished in the 1990s but slowed to a trickle at the start of the new millennium. As we see it, play-literacy research is stuck in a theoretical and methodological rut. Two promising conceptual frameworks--connectionist and dynamic systems theories--can supply the thrust needed to get…

Play Therapy is based upon the fact that play is the child's natural medium of self-expression. It is an opportunity that is given to the child to "play out" his/her feelings and problems just as, in certain types of adult therapy, an individual "talks out" his difficulties. Children use play to express feelings and thoughts.…

This paper is an account of, and reflection on, the author's six-month ethnographic study of a residential care home for severely traumatised and abused children in Australia. During the stay she designed and offered a short six-day course for the care staff and foster carers in the use of play for emotional and therapeutic support. Prior to this,…