This study investigated the effects of teaching sociodramatic scripts on interactions among three triads, each containing two typical preschool children and one child with autistic characteristics. Results supported the inclusion of systematic training of scripts to enhance interaction among children with and without disabilities during…

Twenty-six precocious preschoolers exhibited high frequencies of dramatic and associative play. Girls engaged in more cooperative and less solitary play than boys. Elder children participated in more solitary, parallel, and less cooperative and less dramatic play than younger peers. The higher intelligence quotient group undertook less…

Examined the play activities of 49 at-risk (AR) and non-at-risk (NAR) elementary school students, using the Smilansky Scale for Evaluation of Dramatic and Sociodramatic Play measure. Found that AR students displayed higher levels of hostile acting out behaviors than did NAR students, whereas the NAR group engaged in more verbal communication…

An environmental education program for children at Killerton Park (England) combines reenactment of myths and other outdoor learning activities in an effort to "re-story" the landscape and give children a sense of place in the natural world. The activities were successful in stimulating the children's creativity and sensitivity to…

Reinforces the value of drama and theater for young children. Recommends dramatic play, creative drama, theater, and television, a form of drama, as opportunities for children to learn social interaction skills and person-to-person critical thinking. Urges recognition of drama as an educational tool in the development of young children. (DLH)

Claims there is a missing link between the two seemingly independent stories in Will Hobbs' novel "Bearstone." This missing link can be found through looking at four kinds of play that occur in the novel. (NH)

Summarizes a dissertation that examines the theory and practice of dramatic play among middle school children. Finds that they are still adept and interested in dramatic play. Discusses four components describing the nature and product of the dramatic process (social interactions, metacognitive strategies, ideational processes, and content of…

Summarizes the author's dissertation following a group of bilingual first graders as they created an opera with their teacher and an artist-in-residence. Summarizes the opera process using the libretto format. Discusses the setting, perspectives of all of the collaborators, what was learned, and the educational implications. (SR)

Discusses the benefits for children's literacy, creativity, and enthusiasm for classroom activities of taking dictation of preschool children's own stories and facilitating dramatizations of these stories. Considers issues in the process of dictation and dramatization. Describes differences and similarities in children's stories and their relation…

Examines the creation of process drama and writing experiences in a second/third-grade classroom. Describes how the classroom teacher used process drama (involving students in imaginary, unscripted, and spontaneous scenes) as a context for learning. Notes how process drama provided a context for content area instruction along with writing…

Incorporates dramatization into science teaching to explain difficult phenomena. Uses three different types of dramatization: teacher-performed dramatization, teacher-directed dramatization, and student-directed dramatization. Presents student analyses of the dramatizations. Introduces an instrument that is designed to measure student perceptions…

The focus of this article on play training (when adults intervene in informal but purposeful ways in preschool children's spontaneous, symbolic play) is not on whether it works, but on why it works. A theoretical framework for examining adult/child play interactions, which reconciles diverse perspectives in the literature, is presented.…

Investigated Mexican American cultural traits displayed by young children during sociodramatic play in a bilingual preschool classroom. Cultural traits identified as funds of knowledge include language, values, beliefs, ways of discipline, household care, and value of education. Findings underscore the inadequacy of representing cultures through…

Dorsey shares her practice of using a written play to connect the knowledge students bring to the classroom with Howard Gardner's concept of multiple intelligences.

In this article, first I describe from observation the spontaneous vocalisations produced during free play by young children of 18 months to three-years-old. I propose that a focus on vocalisations can provide valuable insights into general aspects of children's play. Next I describe two musical play situations between toddlers and their mothers…