Pretend play by African American children in head start

Play behaviors of African American 4-year-olds from impoverished families were observed naturalistically. Children's free play was videotaped in Head Start classrooms over several weeks in the playhouse, block corner, and outside play yard. Play was categorized into cognitive play types—functional, constructive, and pretend play. Children most frequently engaged in functional play. Contrary to Smilansky's findings, impoverished children also engaged in pretend play. This play type was high in quality (object use, number of participants, and subtypes of pretense exhibited) but low in quantity (number and duration of play episodes) compared to other types of play. These findings are discussed in the context of theories of pretend play.     

Educating children with Down's syndrome in the United Arab Emirates

It is always instructive to hear about the experiences of those seeking to promote inclusion in a range of cultures and countries around the world. In this article Dr Gaad, Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of the United Arab Emirates, reports on her Government-funded research into the education of children with Down's syndrome in her country. As an Arabic speaker, Dr Gaad was able to gather the views of parents, professionals and policy makers in some depth. As an educator, she brought a critical level of analysis to the lessons she observed.
In the following pages, Dr Gaad reflects on the attitudes, values and beliefs that impact upon the education of children with Down's syndrome in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). She discusses the educational services that are currently provided for these children and gives focused consideration to the issue of inclusion. The article closes with Dr Gaad's recommendations for future practice.     

Relationship of play and language patterns among Singaporean pre‐school children in homes and classrooms

This paper reports the findings of a study aimed at investigating the relationship between Singaporean preschool children's play and language patterns. Observations of 56 children (aged between 4.0 and 6.0 years) from middle and lower‐middle income families at play in a standardised setting in their classrooms and in their homes were videotaped and analysed using two play measures and five language measures. Analysis of parental data revealed positive attitudes towards child play and high involvement in children's play. High Caldwell HOME scores revealed homogeneity in home environments for stimulating child learning and cognitive development. Few significant differences as a function of age, sex or SES were found. Correlational data demonstrated the utility of specific play and language measures. Higher levels of play and higher levels of language were correlated.     

Attribution style in adolescents with Down's syndrome

Educational research places emphasis on the fact that individuals who have experienced repeated failures may develop an attribution profile characterized by a bias towards primarily external causes. The aim of this study is to compare the attribution style of adolescents with Down's syndrome with that of normal children and adolescents matched for mental and chronological age; three groups consisting of 10 participants each were employed, an experimental group and two control groups were employed. The experimental group were Down's syndrome adolescents. Participants in the first control group were matched to the experimental groups for mental age, and those in the second for chronological age. All of the 30 participants were given an attribution test consisting of 14 items, illustrative of everyday or school‐related events in which the main character experienced either success or failure. The participants were asked to attribute the character's performance to one of five causes: ability, effort, help, luck or task difficulty. The results show that adolescents with Down's syndrome tend to attribute performance to external help. Their attribution style would seem to be very similar to that of the control participants matched for mental age.     

Pretend play and maternal scaffolding: Comparisons of toddlers with advanced development,typical development,and hearing impairment

This study used measures of pretend play and maternal scaffolding to explore and compare the early development of deaf children, typically developing children, and children showing advanced intellectual development. Marked differences were found among the groups in both play development and characteristics of mother‐child interactions. In particular, children who scored above 130 IQ at four years of age were found, as toddlers, to have demonstrated significantly advanced pretend play. In addition, the mothers of the high IQ children engaged in scaffolding behaviors involving higher stages of pretend transformations, verbal analogies and world links. The findings are discussed in relation to children's learning in Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development, as well as possible implications for future research on early gifted development.     

论直觉在儿童美术教育中的作用

直觉是人们在长久思索某一问题的基础上，以高度省略，简化，浓缩的形式，豁然洞察问题实质的一种思维。它具有表现的突发性，结构的跳跃性和结论的或然性的特征，直觉在儿童美术教育中具有十分重要的地位和作用：儿童依靠直觉把握物象基本特征，儿童依靠直觉能创造性地表现视觉意象，儿童领先直觉能体现美的自然法则。     

Developing language and cognition in young children with Logo

A Logo intervention was implemented to improve the language and problem-solving skills of four young mainstreamed children with developmental disabilities. To ensure that the children had a clear concept of Logo, a specially designed scope and sequence curriculum, with instructional aids, was developed. The children were tested in language and cognitive processing and gain scores were analysed after the intervention. While there were no statistically supportable conclusions attesting to the benefit of Logo in language and problem-solving, a qualitative assessment of gains supported the value of the project.     

Rough and tumble play in children: research and theory

Abstract

The studies referred to have all been done at just one or two schools, and there may be considerable variations between children of different cultural and social class backgrounds. Further research is needed in these areas. So far as we can tell at the moment, r&t is primarily a friendly and playful activity, which does not usually involve any intent to hurt, at least up to early adolescense. Its function remains unclear, but it appears to be part of normal development, and children who rough-and-tumble a lot are generally sociable but not especially aggressive. To this extent, there seems no reason to discourage r&t except in contexts where the noisy and vigorous activities might distract from other (e. g. educational) objectives. It does seem that the motivation behind r&t becomes more complex by adolescence, and the task of giving practical advice on the matter correspondingly more difficult. Finally some adults and some children may have difficulty in distinguishing r&t and agression. Some dissemination of, or training in, the cues which distinguish the two may be helpful.     

Social Pretend Play in Korean- and Anglo-American Preschoolers

Ninety-two preschoolers (46 Anglo- and 46 Korean-American) were observed during free play activities and videotaped in an experimental toy play setting. Cultural differences were examined in the frequency of social pretend play, communicative strategies, and pretend play themes. Anglo-American children engaged in more pretend play during free play activities than Korean-American children. In the experimental setting, there were no cultural differences in the frequency of pretend play; however, there were significant differences in children's communicative strategies and in their play themes. Korean-American children's play included everyday activity and family role themes, whereas Anglo-American children enacted danger in the environment and fantastic themes. Anglo-American children described their own actions, rejected their partners' suggestions, and used directives, whereas Korean-American children described their partners' actions and used tag questions, semantic ties, statements of agreement, and polite requests. The findings suggest that play is a common activity for most children. However, the thematic content and the communicative strategies used to structure and maintain pretend play are influenced by culture.     

‘Good-fit’ teacher-child play interactions and the subsequent autonomous play of preschool children

The purpose of this study was to test a model of adult-child play interactions in preschool classrooms, based on the work of Vygotsky and neo-Vygotskian scholars. The model predicts that adults will tailor the play support they provide to the immediate needs of individual children, and that this will lead to subsequent independent play. Classroom interactions between eight preschool teachers and 32 students were videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed over a six-month period. Interviews were conducted with the eight adult participants to confirm and elucidate findings from observed classroom behaviors. Distinct types of play support needed by children and given by teachers were identified. These were operationally defined; definitions were used to create a coding system that was found to have high inter-rater reliability. Sequential analyses were conducted to determine goodness-of-fit between teacher responses and children's needs. Behavioral outcomes of a good fit were also examined. Findings support the model tested here. Teachers often responded to children's play with behaviors matching the level of support needed. Good-fit interactions more frequently led to autonomous subsequent play than poor-fit interactions.     

The play behavior of hearing-impaired kindergarten children

This exploratory study examined the cognitive and social play behaviors of hearing-impaired kindergarten children with regard to classroom instructional mode and communication strategies. Two classes were observed--one using sign communication and the other using an oral-based method of communication. Functional, constructive, dramatic, and social play behaviors were observed and documented. Statistically significant differences were found between the two groups of children with regard to social and dramatic play as well as with regard to levels of aggression. For example, children in the sign-based class demonstrated higher levels of social play behavior and lower levels of aggression than the children in the oral-based class. Guidelines and strategies to help children initiate and sustain play are suggested.     

Relationship between imaginative play and language development in hearing-impaired children

The relationship between imaginative play and language development was investigated in a group of 20 severely and profoundly hearing-impaired children between the ages of 3 and 6. Each child was videotaped in a 60-minute session interacting with the investigator and playing with three sets of toys: a miniature house, barn, and garage. Analysis of the subjects' language revealed that 15 were operating in Brown's (1973) Stage 1, one in Stage 3, and four in Stage 5. Play was analyzed along three dimensions: (a) percentage of time engaged in imaginative play; (b) use of planned pretend; and (c) use of story line. A significant relationship was found between imaginative play and language development. Results revealed no relationship between imaginative play and chronological age. Correspondences were found between language development and use of planned pretend and story line.     

A study of auditory preferences in nonhandicapped infants and infants with Down's syndrome

11 infants with Down's syndrome (MA 9.2 months, CA 12.7 months) and 10 of 11 nonhandicapped infants (MA 9.6 months, CA 9.3 months) demonstrated that they could operate an automated device which enabled them to choose to listen to 1 of a pair of auditory signals. All subjects showed preferential responding. Both groups of infants showed a significant preference for nursery rhymes sung by a female voice rather than played on musical instruments. The infants with Down's syndrome had much longer response durations for the more complex auditory stimuli. The apparatus provides a useful technique for studying language development in both normal and abnormal populations.     

Prevalence of father-child rough-and-tumble play and physical aggression in preschool children

Three samples of francophone subjects from Quebec (Canada) are used to establish the prevalence of parent-child RTP according to different personal, social and family variables, and to verify if children who engage in more RTP with their father exhibit less physical aggression towards other children and are more competitive without resorting to aggression. Our results showed that 24 to 43% of fathers engaged in RTP with their children on a daily basis, and only 4 to 16% of fathers never do. Moreover, personal characteristics such as the age and sex of the participants seemed to have a greater influence on the frequency of parent-child RTP than variables related for example to work, socio-economic conditions, or the living environment. The hypothesis that children who engage in more RTP with their fathers display less physical aggression towards their peers is invalidated here. We have concluded that it is important that not only RTP frequency, but also and especially indicators of RTP quality be used. Future observational studies of father-child RTP are required in order to do so. Finally, certain preliminary results support the hypothesis that father-child RTP fosters the development of the competition skills in children without using aggression.