Interpretations of Vygotsky's texts have generally focused on the intellectual aspects of children's development, including his theory of play. This article presents a reinterpretation of Vygotsky's theory of play and draws on this theory of art to include emotions as an important part of children's play. I will argue that in play, children's…

Symbolic play is a powerful vehicle for supporting emotional development and communication. It embraces all developmental capacities. This article describes how symbols are formed and how emotional themes are symbolized whereby children reveal their understanding of the world, their feelings and relationships, and how they see themselves in the…

Two child groups (5-6 and 8-9 years of age) participated in a challenging rule-following task while they were (a) told that they were in the presence of a watchful invisible person ("Princess Alice"), (b) observed by a real adult, or (c) unsupervised. Children were covertly videotaped performing the task in the experimenter's absence. Older…

Age, gender and cross-national differences of children ages 8 through 16 in Greece (n = 400) and the United States (n = 5,400) are examined on four temperament styles: extroversion-introversion, practical-imaginative, thinking-feeling and organized-flexible styles. In general, Greek children prefer extroverted to introverted styles and organized…

A discussion of communicative language teaching of children of about eight focuses on their unique communication capacities and needs, particularly in the school environment, on the importance of teaching communication strategies as a social and linguistic tool, on developing metalinguistic competence, and on the role of the imagination in…