In this paper the course of the therapy of an adopted latency-aged girl is described in some detail. There was considerable improvement outside the sessions while within sessions she remained a not-very-vocal child and continued to play in the way that a younger child might. The clinical material is examined in a discussion of the possible…

This paper first defines race and related dehumanizing experiences and then explores the history of the study of Blacks in ethnography and in psychoanalysis before addressing the primary focus: psychoanalytical ethnography. Psychoanalytical ethnography is valuable for transforming racially wounded communities into vibrant open communities through…

In 2 multiple baseline experiments, we tested stimulus-stimulus pairing effects on acquisition of conditioned reinforcement for observing and manipulating stimuli and stereotypy/passivity. In Experiment I we studied a 5 year-old male with autism and we collected data using continuous 5-sec whole interval recording in 5 min sessions in which the…

One of the greatest challenges we face in kinesiology is changing behavior--specifically, converting habitually sedentary individuals into active human beings. This task is not an easy one. Thus, when we adopt Easy Street strategies that focus on introducing, informing, and entertaining, we have very little hope of effecting such conversions. Easy…

Young children evolve their own rules for "playing" together. This author believes that people have to learn, and teach, the techniques for "working well" together, and the sooner this begins, the better. In this article, the author provides an account of a task she has sometimes given to groups of five-year-olds in year one, with the intention…

This article argues the need to examine communication in joint play situations rather than individual assessments in solitary play situations when children's development is focused. Informed by Bakhtin's dialogical and Moscovici's interactionist perspectives, observations were made of the interaction between two girls, aged 3 1/2 and 4, playing at…

This article presents the findings of a study examining the factors that motivate students to play computer games. The study is confined to older preschool age, a time when playing functions as the "leading activity" in ontogenetic development. Based on the findings of the study, the following are students' motives for playing computer games: (1)…

This article provides an insight into the world of professional play specialists and provides suggestions to parents on how to be more confident about their role in play. Play need not be work for moms and dads, but it should be a family priority that they enjoy and about which the feel just great when they have devoted time and energy to do it.…

A structural equation model was used to examine the role of autonomous mobility and play in public and semipublic places in childhood to predict adolescents' sense of community, fear of crime, and, through the mediation of these two last psychosocial factors, feelings of loneliness. Participants included 789 Italian students (469 females and 320…

Plagued by one of the most overweight populaces in the country, the state of West Virginia was looking for a solution to its obesity problem that would appeal to the school-age crowd. It turned to Linda Carson, a professor at West Virginia University's School of Physical Education. Carson recalled witnessing kids lining up in an arcade to play a…

This paper describes how the occupational therapist's looking at the child and his/her play could build a basic history of the subjects, providing the occupational therapist with clues to guide his/her proposed assistance. The authors understand the activity of play as a dimension that enables the subject to creatively establish contact with…

Playing games, particularly pretense games, is one of the areas where young children first enter into collective, conventional practices. This chapter reviews recent empirical data in support of this claim and explores the idea that games present a cradle for children's growing into societal and institutional life more generally. (Contains 2…

Recent developments in the Queensland early childhood context have seen the phased-in introduction of a full-time Preparatory Year to replace current part-time preschool provision. Surrounding this development has been discussion of the potential role of the play-based Early Years Curriculum in shaping the implementation of early primary…

Educators and occupational therapists regard play as a primary occupation of childhood, which in the case of children with special needs has not been well studied. The aim of this descriptive study was to observe the free-play behaviour of children with special needs in both special education and mainstream education settings. The Revised…

This study examines the interrelationships among art, play and "real" life, as perceived by young children. Twenty-one children aged four and five in their first year of formal schooling in Ireland, were observed during art-related play activities and classes over a period of four months in 2004. Research data consisted of art works…