Digital media and electronic toys are changing the landscape of childhood. How does this change impact language learning? In this chapter, we explore potential alignment between six established principles of language and children's engagement with digital media and electronic toys. We argue that electronic toys and digital media are not solely…

Cognitive development is the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving and decision making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Play contributes to cognitive development in a number of ways. It helps children to develop imaginary and memory which is essential for thinking about past, present and future.…

Fifty years after publishing his seminal work on play and its role in child development, Vygotskian theory is still highly influential in education, and particularly in early years. This paper presents two examples of full integration of Vygotskian principles into schools in two very different settings. Both report improvements in learning and in…

This article reviews the design and implementation of a game as an instrument for dialogue, both as a social tool and a shared interface for music performance. Beyond describing the design of "Game Remains," the article shares the details of an impact story of how an installation in Guelph's Musagetes Boarding House Arts in Canada has…

Statement of the Problem: Children are constantly stimulated in different developmental areas through playing games with other children or adults. Play can provide a context wherein children achieve deep learning through the integration of intellectual, physical, moral, and spiritual values and commit themselves to learning, developing, and…

Though temporal reasoning is a key factor for text comprehension, existing proposals for visualizing temporal information and temporal connectives proves to be inadequate for children, not only for their levels of abstraction and detail, but also because they rely on pre-existing mental models of time and temporal connectives, while in the case of…

This article describes a study on mutuality in mother-child interaction during reading and playing sessions. Within mother-child interaction, mutuality is seen as important in language acquisition. The study was executed within a group of Netherlands Antillean mother-child dyads who participated in an intervention programme. Mutuality was…

The purpose of this study was to explore kindergarten teachers' views and roles regarding outdoor play environments in Omani kindergartens. Thirty kindergarten teachers from 15 private kindergartens were observed and interviewed. The results indicated that teachers recognize the importance of outdoor play in children's development and learning.…

Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and no intellectual disabilities were taught to increase the social play skills of children with ASD as part of a vocational training program. Participants included 3 adults, aged 21 to 27 years, and 6 children with ASD. Probes conducted throughout the study evaluated whether play skills training affected…

Peer play provides ample opportunities for the use and development of self-regulatory and mathematical skills. This study aimed at examining whether children's engagement in solitary low-level play, interactive play and competent play influences their self-regulatory and number sense skills. The effect of demographic variables and children's…

Given the increased number of students with disabilities who have culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in the United States, there has been growing attention to the cultural responsiveness of evidence-based behavioral interventions. The current study examined the effects of video modeling intervention on social play and interactions…

Siblings play a critical role in the socialization experiences of their younger siblings. Societal values, standards, and customs are transmitted and created through the process of modeling and the construction of shared meaning. It follows, therefore, that the process of socialization may be culturally dependent. Using multiple case studies of…

This study introduces the concept of microgames to support situated learning in order to foster situational awareness (SA) of planners in seaport container terminals. In today's complex working environments, it is often difficult to develop the required level of understanding of a given situation, described as situational awareness. A container…

Research Findings: This descriptive study used sequential analysis to examine both preschool teachers' responsiveness to children's utterances in sociodramatic play and the children's responses to their teachers' utterances. Eleven teachers in a Head Start program were videotaped while interacting with children in the dramatic play center. Salient…

Children of all ages who have the opportunities, time, and materials to explore science content in a self-directed manner will develop higher level understandings, and demonstrate more sophisticated approaches to science. A vast and growing body of research supports the academic benefits of self-directed or authentic scientific inquiry, which is…