Presents results of a study indicating that constructive and dramatic play contexts affected language to the extent that children use more exophora in the constructive context and more linguistic verbs, third-person pronouns, and displaced reference tenses in the dramatic context. (HTH)

Two studies were conducted to determine the effects of specific learning centers on preschoolers' functional uses of language. It was hypothesized (1) that different centers would elicit different functions of language and (2) that contexts which promote fantasy play would elicit more multifunctional utterances than would other contexts. In the…

Explores the extent to which social cognitive aspects of preschool children's free play behaviors varied according to two classroom contextual variables: (1) presence in different learning centers and (2) number of children and adults in those centers. Results incdicated that children behaved differently according to these variables. (Author/AS)