Dramatic play is a typical activity that provides many benefits for preschool children's learning and development. This paper presents the findings of a mixed-method study that examined the level of preschool children's involvement in dramatic play and the connection between this involvement and the quality of the classroom environment. The study…

Values education is central to early childhood education. However, it rarely provides real-life opportunities to engage students. This study investigates the effect of creative drama in acquisition of values by preschoolers. Experimental design with a pre-post-test control group was used. The study group consisted of 44 children aged 5 to 5 ½…

The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of Traditional Game Education Program (TGEP) on language development of pre-school children. Dependent and independent variables were determined as the children's language development scores and "traditional game education program", respectively. The study group was determined with…

The funds of knowledge framework promotes connecting community contexts with curriculum aimed to activate children's prior knowledge. Typically, teachers determine what knowledge sources harmonise best with their existing programming, potentially omitting particular resources that may not align. Young children, on the other hand, can act as agents…

This article describes teachers' collaborative inquiry into the pretend "bad guy" play of 12 children in a university laboratory preschool classroom in the northeastern United States. The article describes the inquiry process and includes details and documentation of children's decisions, actions, and interactions related to the bad guy…

The Early Learning Guidelines: Nebraska's Birth to Five Learning and Development Standards (hereafter referred to as the Guidelines) is a resource to provide information about young children's learning and development. The Guidelines are intended to assist adults in planning and providing meaningful learning experiences and environments for…

In this article, the author shares her experience in setting up a unique imitative play through which children try on roles and imitate "grown-up" activities, thereby developing feelings of confidence and competence. As children play, they gain communication and negotiation skills; if conflicts arise, they engage in creative problem solving.…

Purpose: This study examined preschool teachers' fidelity to the language-focused curriculum (LFC; B. Bunce, 1995), a comprehensive classroom curriculum designed to improve at-risk children's language outcomes through targeted improvements to a classroom's activity contexts (e.g., dramatic play, art, storybook reading) and instructional processes…

In an imaginary "Agency of Smiles," preschool children pretending to be aid workers are immersed in such activities as typing letters, sending and receiving faxes, answering phones, and negotiating with clients. A mail carrier delivers a letter from an immigrant preschool boy in the Netherlands, who requests help in making friends in his…

Research Findings: This article is based on the premise that the field of early childhood education needs to begin to study the details of teacher-child interaction if it is to understand fully what aspects of classrooms foster development and to create effective professional development interventions. To this end, we report analyses of four Head…

This article provides an overview of 3 approaches to peer-mediated intervention that have been effective in improving the social and communicative interactions among young children with autism and other developmental disabilities and their classmates without disabilities. These empirically supported peer-mediated interventions involve teaching…

Describes Improvised Musical Play (IMP), a teaching strategy that uses simple rhythms, chanting, and singing to make participation in social play with nondelayed peers easier for developmentally delayed children. (BB)

Investigated feasibility of teaching socio-dramatic play through the use of a verbal script to increase sophistication of free play behavior in preschoolers with developmental disabilities. Found support for the clinical utility of scripted play as a teaching strategy for such children. (SD)

This paper compares the effects of fantasy play tutoring and tutoring in specific skills on the performance of nursery school children on a battery of tests and observations. Children from two classes in each of two nursery schools participated in the study, with a total of 65 children completing pre- and post-testing as well as follow-up testing…

Systematic efforts at the Arizona State Child Study Laboratory were successful in replacing children's undesirable superhero play with other types of sociodramatic play. Teachers found superhero play undesirable because it was aggressive and noisy and was accompanied by an increase in random activity. Observations indicated that superhero play had…