Describes four-year-olds' fantasy play, and how their language manifests their imaginations, moods, and personal fears. (HTH)

Explores children's play in elementary school, focusing on children's changing definitions and categories of play, including instrumental or teacher-generated activity, real or voluntary play, and illicit or unsanctioned surreptitious interactions among children. Presents relevant educational research on play, decrying the overemphasis on…

Describes the place play has in school learning. Discusses play and problem-solving ability, play and symbolizing, and learning by experimenting, and recognizes the need for a learning theory that includes recognition of play in learning development. (CRH)

Social and cognitive values of different play materials for 21 normal and 21 handicapped preschool children were examined. Analyses showed that handicapped preschoolers exhibited comparable amounts of symbolic play but lower quality of symbolic play than that shown by nonhandicapped preschoolers. Symbolic play by handicapped children depended much…

Discusses developmental changes in visual exploration and manipulative investigation among children from birth to six months, six to 12 months, and 12 to 36 months of age. Also discusses pretend play in terms of decentration, decontextualization, and integration. (RH)

Indicates that highly anxious preschool children reduced anxiety levels through play. Compared with low-anxious subjects, highly anxious children engaged in more dramatic/fantasy play forms. Imaginative qualities which children introduce in their play are more essential to the resolution of the conflict than social forms of play.(Author)

Since evidence indicates that the potential for play must be developed in a child, just as the potential for thinking, it is important that teachers be aware of the need to provide a climate which is conducive to imaginative play. This article suggests steps to be taken in creating such a climate. (Author/NQ)

This study examined the effects of nutritional supplements on the duration and level of spontaneous play of 55 mildly to moderately malnourished toddlers living within the tea plantations of West Java, Indonesia. Infants were randomly assigned by their day care centers to one of three supplement groups: (1) energy and micronutrient supplements;…

Advocates encouraging children to write about what they know best--the rich fantasy worlds they create in play. (Author)

Compares Lodge's (1979) examples of children's use of the past tense in pretend play with examples of the use of other moods and of modal auxiliaries. (AM)

Examined the relationship between dramatic play and creativity from three perspectives: (1) the existing theories related to the association; (2) the research on this issue; and (3) some situational factors of dramatic play related to this relationship. Most of the research supports the relationship between dramatic play and creativity, noting the…

Examined young children's metaplay--the process of suspending actual role playing to think or communicate about pretend themes from outside the play frame. Found three categories of metaplay behaviors, including initiations, responses, and constructions. Concluded that a rich array of developmentally useful interactions transpire outside of actual…

Related to aspects of drama and theatre education, I search beyond the findings about symbolic play set forth by Dr Howard Gardner in "Frames of mind. The theory of multiple intelligences". Despite the inspiration for and solidarity with arts educators that emanate from his theory, I sensed that it did not provide a full picture of the complex…

In the current study, tacts with positive qualifying autoclitics for reading were reinforced in order to determine if this procedure would increase the time spent reading by participants. Participants included 5 children, between 9-10 years old. Participants were individually exposed to 4 free operant sessions during which they were instructed to…

Impairments of pretend play are a diagnostic characteristic of autism. This has been interpreted in terms of a generative impairment. Specifically, children with autism are unable to generate the ideas for pretend play despite an intact underlying ability to understand pretence. The notion of a performance deficit affecting production only has, in…