Scholars conventionally find play difficult to define because the concept is complex and ambiguous. The author proffers a definition of play that takes into consideration its dynamic character, posits six basic elements of play (anticipation, surprise, pleasure, understanding, strength, and poise), and explores some of their emotional, physical,…

Teaching Love is a commentary and response to "Teaching the power of the word," an ethnodrama based on a series of narrative interviews conducted with an outstanding teacher of English in the Chicago Public Schools, Anise Arcova, written by Charles Vanover (and also submitted to "QSE" as an original work). Brown and Vanover…

For more than two decades, research has focused on the understanding of pretence as an important means for young children to conceptualise the mind. Many use the phrase "mental representation" to a mental model of some entity or concept, which describes what is inside the minds of young children in relation to a real-world situation or…

Many young children receive developmental screenings because they do not perform basic self-regulation skills needed in preschool and home environments. Previous research on Literacy-Based Behavioural Interventions (LBBI) shows promise for promoting acquisition and maintenance of skills and routines; however, research has not yet examined the…

Although theater-based interventions have emerged as an innovative health education platform, more research is needed to understand how these interventions work and to identify factors that make them successful and replicable in adolescent populations. This paper discusses the first research project conducted on High School Sex Squads (HSSS),…

In the UK, nearly one-third of children aged 2-15 years are failing to engage in sufficient physical activity (PA). Associated interventions are historically rationalized from adult perspectives. This study aimed to empower children as participants in the research process and experts of their own experience in an endeavour to inform activity…

Although extensive research exists on vocabulary instruction during book reading in preschool classroom, comparatively little research has been conducted on vocabulary exposure in classroom play contexts and child vocabulary outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine Head Start teacher and child vocabulary use in dyadic play sessions and…

This cross-sectional research was conducted to probe how 626 Taiwanese children's conceptions of learning differ by age and gender via drawing. Participants were from the kindergarten, the first grade, and the third grade. A coding scheme categorizing the people, learning domain, and place in the drawings was developed. Chi-square tests were then…

The authors consider mature make-believe play a critical component of childhood that helps children develop new skills and learn to communicate. They argue that, although theoretical accounts of play have emphasized the importance of make-believe play for children to achieve social and academic competence, the absence of a reliable and valid…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the vulnerable refugee populations of the world need more support than ever before. As refugees (both children and adults) struggle to make sense of this pandemic with very few to no resources, iACT, an international nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian action to aid, empower, and extend hope to those…

The article presents a research developed collaterally within the framework of the European research project "LUDI. Play for Children with Disabilities" (http://ludinetwork.eu/, 2014-2018). One goal of the project is to provide guidelines on play for children with disabilities. To reach this goal, first of all the needs of users have…

The value of self-regulation for academic achievement is well established. Thus it is paramount to understand how these abilities are developed throughout childhood and to develop research methodologies appropriate to the abilities of young children. In light of this need, we analyzed performances of primary school children in two constructional…

We investigated the impact of story-based activities on literacy skills in pre-school children. The efficacy of story-based activities program were tested by literacy skills survey test. Results showed that, the scores of overall literacy skills and all subsets skills in the study group (n = 45) were statistically significantly higher than the…

The author suggests the brain's cerebellum and cerebral cortex are the origin of culture and considers the cerebellar models that came to constitute culture to be derived specifically from play. He summarizes recent research on the behavioral, cognitive, and affective evolution of the cerebellum and the cerebral cortex that shows the development…

This study examined whether perceptions of play of future professionals (N = 337) are related to their intent to integrate play into their practices and how their efficacy beliefs moderate the relation between perceptions of play and intended practices. While students with child-related majors were more likely to have stronger perceptions of play,…