A stochastic actor-based model was used to investigate the origins of sex segregation by examining how similarity in sex of peers and time spent in gender-typed activities affected affiliation network selection and how peers influenced children's ("N" = 292; "M"[subscript age] = 4.3 years) activity involvement. Gender had…

In March 2012, 30 faculty and 49 students from all over the world met in El Calafate, Argentina, during two intense weeks. It was the second Latin American School for Education, Cognitive, and Neural Sciences (LASchool), sponsored by the James S. McDonnell Foundation. The LA School seeks to critically examine research findings potentially relevant…

Parents and educators tend to have many questions about young children's play with computers and other technologies at home. They can find it difficult to know what is best for children because these toys and products were not around when they were young. Some will say that children have an affinity for technology that will be valuable in their…

As children's digital lives become more relevant to schools and educators, the question of play and learning is being revisited in new and interesting ways. "Children's Virtual Play Worlds: Culture, Learning, and Participation" provides a more reasoned account of children's play engagements in virtual worlds through a number of scholarly…

Teaching children to be empathetic is important because empathy is linked with positive social behaviors, future academic success, and the development of work-related skills. Children's relationships with nature can help to establish their values and relationships with other people. The purpose of the study, based on empathy theory, was to…

Twenty-three children, aged four to eight years, who had been exposed to violent attacks, were videotaped in individual 40-minute play sessions. These play narratives were recorded by a student researcher trained in narrative analysis and play therapy. She then sorted these play vignettes into three patterns of post-traumatic play, defined in the…

As many cultural groups in Western societies have become disaffected with mainstream sports cultures and their logics of practice, sociologists of sport and physical culture have turned their attention to the existential benefits of play and games. There is growing interest in revisiting and exploring the classic theories of play in society,…

For more than 30 years, the thinking and writing of Jerome W. Berryman has made a significant and unique contribution to the religious education of children and adults in faith-based contexts. Claiming to be influenced primarily by the work of Maria Montessori, his writings reveal the purpose of religious education to be teaching children the art…

Many studies have examined associations between children's theory of mind and social behavior with familiar peers, but to date none have examined how theory of mind might relate to behavior toward unfamiliar peers in a play setting. Forty-four 4-year-olds (21 girls, 23 boys) participated in standard theory-of-mind tasks and in a play session with…

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of task organization, a component of Structured Teaching developed by Division TEACCH, on the independent play of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). On-task behavior, task accuracy, task performance and teacher prompting were measured across independent play sessions in the classroom.…

Object substitutions in play (e.g. using a box as a car) are strongly linked to language learning and their absence is a diagnostic marker of language delay. Classic accounts posit a symbolic function that underlies both words and object substitutions. Here we show that object substitutions depend on developmental changes in visual object…

In this study, the effectiveness of a sibling training package offered for teaching social interaction skills that are used by typically developing children while playing iPad game activities with their siblings who have autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is investigated. Three children with ASD and their typically developing siblings participated in…

Head Start enhances school readiness during preschool, but effects diminish after children transition into kindergarten. Designed to promote sustained gains, the Research-based Developmentally Informed (REDI) Parent program (REDI-P) provided home visits before and after the kindergarten transition, giving parents evidence-based learning games,…

More than half of poor African American infants are born into "fragile families" and nearly half grow up in single-mother families with little or no father involvement. However, most prenatal interventions fail to help unmarried mothers talk and plan together with their baby's father, especially when fathers are nonresidential. This…

Background: Recess is a part of the elementary school day with strong implications for school climate. Positive school climate has been linked to a host of favorable student outcomes, from attendance to achievement. We examine 6 low-income elementary schools' experiences implementing a recess-based program designed to provide safe, healthy,…