This study examined the effect of a physical activity program on student activity during recess and on disruptive classroom behavior. The program was implemented during recess for 5 weeks in a rural elementary school. Prior to and during the program, teachers recorded observations of sedentary students during recess and of disruptive classroom…

Play remains a topic for discussion, debate, and research within the education community. In this article, the authors argue for a broader view of education in line with Plato's observation (gender not withstanding) that "The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life" (Jowett, 1874, p. 249). The authors…

Vocabulary differences early in development are highly predictive of later language learning as well as achievement in school. Early word learning emerges in the context of tightly coupled social interactions between the early learner and a mature partner. In the present study, we develop and apply a novel paradigm--dual head-mounted eye…

While play seems a most natural activity for children, educators must innovate to incorporate "true play" that originates from the interests and direction of children themselves. The Anji Play approach is a model of innovative play-based education in China that is inspiring the world.

Play provides a foundation for human learning because people have an opportunity to experiment through play and learn in a safe environment. Although play is more free-form, expressive, and improvisational, serious play is more structured, rule-bound with a "serious" purpose (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011). Studies also…

The acquisition of literacy skills is a complex and multi-faceted process that begins long before typical school-based literacy instruction. The present study sought to examine and expand research regarding the independent and interactive contributions of neuropsychological development, movement, play, and music on the development of literacy…

Playful Learning Landscapes seeks to transform everyday spaces into playful learning opportunities to maximize "the other 80 percent" of time that children spend outside school. It lies at the intersection of the growing Child Friendly City movement and a global development agenda that calls for access to high-quality early childhood…

This paper describes visitor interaction with an interactive tabletop game on the topic of evolutionary adaptations of social insects that we designed in collaboration with a large American museum. We observed visitors playing the game and talked to them about the experience. The game explores the emergent phenomena of ant behavior. Research has…

Pretend play is a quintessential activity of early childhood, and adults supply children with many toys to encourage it. Do young children actually prefer to pretend, or do they do it because they are unable to engage in some activities for real? Here we examined, for nine different activities, American middle-class preschoolers' preferences for…

The author proposes a rhetoric of computational play as a perspective for the analysis of the ludic in the Information Age. Combining concepts from the philosophy of information and postphenomenology with different theories of play, he argues that there is a play element shaping the cultural impact of computational media and that this kind of play…

Stressors associated with illness and hospitalization can have long-term adverse effects on young children's development and wellbeing. Professionals who work with young children appreciate the power of children's play for their development as human beings; nonetheless, play is sometimes viewed as inappropriate or unnecessary for children in…

Recent reforms for the early childhood education and care sector in Australia have led in part to the development of a national Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) which presents play based learning as "a context for learning through which children organize and make sense of their social worlds, as they engage actively with people, objects…

This study examined toddlers' autonomy- and connectedness-oriented behaviors and mothers' encouragement of autonomy and connectedness in two cohorts (1995 and 2008) in urban China. Observational data were collected from Chinese children and their mothers in a laboratory free play session. The results showed that compared with children in the 1995…

Naturalistic developmental behavioural interventions are promising approaches for young children with, or suspected of having, autism spectrum disorder. Joint attention, symbolic play, engagement and regulation intervention (JASPER) is a well-researched naturalistic developmental behavioural intervention but, to date, no reviews have specifically…

This study evaluated the effects of using preferred activities with peer support on the social interactions of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their typically developing peers. Two preschool-age children with ASD and six peers in an inclusive classroom participated in this study. A multiple-probe single case experimental…