Offers an interpretive frame for viewing children's growth as creators of imaginative worlds. Suggests that writing development depends not only on children's discovery of cognitive and linguistic strategies but on children's discovery that writing can help authors create coherence in their worlds beyond texts. (MS)

Discusses ways in which the integrated design of all the components of picture books can facilitate both visual and verbal literacy, allowing children to refine literary and aesthetic appreciation and improve their own expressive activity. A bibliography of well-designed picture books is provided. (16 references) (CLB)

Explores the profound connection between human memory and imagination. Educational ideas that find only incompatibility between memorizing and developing imagination and procedural skills are inadequate. Viewing teaching as story telling transforms the curriculum from a huge mass of predigested material to a collection of great stories reflecting…

Discusses the passionate philosophy of Robert Alexander, founder and director of living stage theater company and his views of art, creativity, the entire process of learning, politics, philosophy, and hope. Presents several excerpts from Alexander's presentations for artists and teachers during Living Stage residencies in cities around the…

This article considers the synergistic force, specifically imagination, which can serve as the catalyst for motivation and learning. The importance of classroom climate in fostering imagination and developing growth, discovery, and vision is emphasized. Ways to make imagination an important element of classroom climate are listed. (JDD)

Studied children's grasp of make-believe transformations they had seen enacted. Children indicated the pretend outcome by choosing a picture depicting no change or a picture depicting the pretend change. Older children chose correctly, even with the addition of a picture of an irrelevant transformation, but younger children did not. Autistic…

A self-taught artist describes the creative process and a technique for developing one's intuitive drawing ability. The article identifies seven basic motifs derived from natural forms and illustrates how these motifs are used in the artist's work. (DB)

Examines the differences between imagination, creativity, and fantasy, and presents the relationship of imagination to creativity. Suggests that the basic distinction between imagination and fantasy is that while imagination is related to reality, fantasy is related to unreality. The link between imagination and creativity lies in the opportunity…

Six experiments assessed young children's spatial orientation relative to their imagined surroundings. The experiments found that children as young as 3.5 years were able, like adults, to accurately walk along a path that replicated the route between their seat and the teacher's desk in their preschool classroom. (MDM)

Shortcomings in A. M. Leslie's nondevelopmental, nonsocial, and restrictively cognitive account of young children's "theory of mind" and capacity to pretend are noted, and the alternative thesis that a young child's metarepresentational capacity arises from, rather than forms the basis of, an understanding that humans have mental states…

Explores the dissociation between the performance by children with autism on false belief tasks, on which they do poorly, and false photograph, false map, and false drawing tasks, on which they do well. Suggesting domain specificity in the development of representational system, the results supported the modularity of theory of mind and the…

Interviewed mothers to examine the developmental significance of preschoolers' imaginary companions. Found that relationships with invisible companions were described as sociable and friendly, whereas personified objects were usually nurtured. Object personification frequently occurred as a result of acquiring a toy; invisible friends were viewed…

Examines the development and assessment communication skills at GNVQ (General National Vocational Qualifications). Reflects on a project using multimedia technology to deliver communication skills to English-as-a-Second-Language students. Argues that communication skills models in GNVQ can be narrow and limiting. Suggests that stimulating…

Compared teacher attitudes about pretend play in Old Order Mennonite, New Order Mennonite, and non-Mennonite Christian schools. These subcultures differ in modernity, media exposure, and encouragement of pretend play. Non-Mennonite teachers were most positive about pretend play. Proportion of children's pretend play at recess did not differ, but…

Reviews Josephs's (1998) article connecting play as a discourse in metaphorical transformations with narrative and identity development, focusing on using narrative as a discourse of accounting for self and others in space and time and the role of self-thematization, death, and play in development. Concludes that Josephs advocates the cancellation…