The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the possible relationships among children's extracurricular toy-playing habits, sex-role orientations, spatial abilities, and science achievement. Data were gathered from 282 Midwestern, suburban, fifth-grade students. It was found that boys had significantly higher spatial skills than girls.…

The parent education materials in this packet are intended for use by professionals, and some paraprofessionals, who work with children from birth through 5 years of age and with their families. Included are guidelines for choosing playthings for children of any age, and lists of suggested toys for children of various ages, and, in particular,…

The literature on children's acquisition of sex-typed knowledge, preference, and behavior is reviewed, and a matrix of sex-typing constructs and sex-typed content areas is offered. Two major themes are discussed. The first theme concerns the importance of activities, interests, and peer associations in the early acquisition of sex-typing…

We evaluated contingent and noncontingent practice of an alternative behavior (appropriate play) as intervention for stereotypy that occurred with two play objects in a 5-year old boy with autism. Contingent practice was implemented as a consequence for stereotypy, and the rate of noncontingent practice was matched (yoked) to that schedule. On…

This study attempted to determine whether simple, naturalistic procedures could be used to increase the rate of physically affectionate behaviors directed at stuffed toy animals and at peers in the play of 4- and 5-year-old children. Procedures were developed for scoring affection and aggression during group play. The context of reading a story…

Part of a PhD dissertation submitted to Michigan State University.

This document presents guidelines for kindergarten programs and identifies goals based on the physical, emotional, intellectual, and social development of children 4 to 6 years of age. Separate chapters briefly focus on the kindergarten child's brain development; the role of play in children's learning; the teacher's role in guiding play; the…

While the play of young children has been recognized as a facilitator and a manifestation of cognitive change from egocentric to de-centered interpretations of reality, play activities for the young, profoundly deaf child have been viewed as a frivolity with little educational merit. Empirical evidence suggests that the play of deaf children…

This is the final report of a project that studied sex role stereotyping behavior among children in four preschools in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and attempted to intervene in the development of such stereotyping. The three phases of the study, which included contacting the schools, data collection and analysis, and information dissemination, are…

Guidelines for setting up art, music and play activities for preschool children are presented in this Child Development Associate (CDA) trainee's manual. Chapters I through V discuss play in the preschool, and indoor and outdoor play environments. Chapters VI through X point out the teacher's role in art, discuss two approaches to art programs in…

This study examined the effects of three modes of story reconstruction training on the development of children's story comprehension. One hundred and eight children in grades K to 2 were randomly assigned to one of three training conditions: thematic-fantasy play, adult lead discussion, or drawing. The children were read three books on separate…

This study explored student perspectives on their work and play at school and examined why they engage in work and play. Nineteen eighth grade students, who were predominantly white, and of the middle or upper middle class, were the subjects. The students were asked to conduct an interviewer on a grand tour and then various mini-tours of their…

A study, as yet unfinished, sought to replicate, expand, and provide preliminary answers to questions raised in previous research on the development of fantasy play by black children as functions of age, sex, income level, and other environmental factors. Fantasy play involves the attribution to persons, objects, materials, or situations of…

One of the most promising contemporary approaches to working therapeutically with children and their parents and families is to employ the parents and/or other family members as play-agents, or play therapists. The incorporation of parents and other family or family-surrogate figures into the play therapeutic treatment of children has therapeutic…

Preschool children's knowledge of adult caregiving behaviors was examined with a sample of 14 middle-class, Caucasian boys and girls between the ages of 24 and 27 months. Each child's caregiving behavior in a laboratory environment containing dolls, toy animals, and toy objects, while accompanied by his or her mother, was recorded independently by…