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A textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in Play; also appropriate as a supplement for Child Development and Early Childhood Education courses. With significantly expanded discussions on key topics, this text ties play directly to child development. Addressing the full spectrum of play-related topics, including age-group chapters, its coverage is quite comprehensive and blends research, theory, and practical applications. Play and Child Development, Fourth Edition, is arranged to guide students through topics leading to a comprehensive understanding of play intended to help prepare them for guiding children's play in a number of contexts: preschools, elementary schools, park systems, and research programs. The text is developmentally-based, providing basic information about historical, theoretical, and practical approaches to promoting development through integrated play and learning approaches across various age or developmental levels. The book analyzes play theories and play therapy; presents a history of play; and discusses current play trends. It explores ways to create safe play environments for all children, and how to weave play into school curricula. Finally, the authors examine the role of adults in leading and encouraging children's natural tendencies toward learning by playing. Special coverage includes a full chapter on play and children with disabilities, and the value of field trips in supporting learning.
Respected play scholars James Johnson and James Christie join esteemed author Francis Wardle in this exciting new text on the theorizing and research of childhood play. Play is the universal language of childhood. In order to converse with new generations of children, today's teachers must prepare themselves and learn how this form of communication can be adapted to the classroom. Play, Development, and Early Education, challenges the reader to discover what play is and how to incorporate it into a curriculum for children from toddlerhood through the primary grades. Utilizing three major ideas--the quality of play in early childhood, play as a means of self-expression, and play as a channel of communication to achieving social sense--the authors examine the beliefs, perspectives, and theories relating to play and what effects culture, media and technology have on play. In addition, the text addresses the role of parents in supporting and elaborating play, the direct connections between research and play practice, and the value of play in relation to the total development (cognitive, affective, emotional, social, and physical) of all children.
'Children's Play' explores the many facets of play and how it develops from infancy through late childhood. The authors discuss major revolutions in the way the children of today engage in play, including changes in organised youth sports children's humour, and electronic play.
With significantly expanded discussions on key topics, here is a revised edition of the popular early childhood book that, more than any other book on the market, ties play directly to child development. Through a seamless blend of research, theory, and practical applications, its comprehensive coverage addresses the full spectrum of play-related topics.The book analyzes play theories and play therapy; presents a history of play; and discusses current play trends. It explores ways to create safe play environments for all children, and how to weave play into school curricula. Finally, the authors examine the role of adults in leading and encouraging children's natural tendencies toward learning by playing. Special coverage includes a full chapter on play and children with disabilities, and the value of field trips in supporting learning.For pre-service and in-service, pre-school and primary grade teachers.
Play is an important part of our development. In playing, we learn to move, think, speak and imagine, as well as cope with other people. This second edition of The Development of Play addresses these key functions that play serves. David Cohen examines how children play with objects, with language, and most importantly, with each other and their parents. He goes on to ask why we stop playing, and looks at adult games. The Development of Play argues that psychology has accepted too uncritically the Victorian opposition of work and play, and argues that adults can learn to play more. With its extensive account of recent work in this area, this book is the most up-to-date work on the importance of play and will be of interest to child psychologists, developmental psychologists, and a wide number of professionals involved with children.
Symbolic Play: The Development of Social Understanding describes the development of symbolic play from infancy through the preschool years. This text is divided into 12 chapters that focus on make-believe as an activity within which young children spontaneously represent and practice their understanding of the social world. The first chapter introduces the development of event schemata produced in symbolic play, about children's management of the playframe, and about the development of subjunctive, or "what if" thought. The next chapters are devoted to the development of joint pretending, specifically the use if shared scripts in the organization of make-believe play and the subtleties of metacommunication. These chapters also emphasize the supporting role of the mother in early collaborative make-believe. These topics are followed by discussions of the child's growing ability to represent the internal states of the inanimate figures whose doing can vicariously enacts. The remaining chapters focus on social interaction through symbolic play with dolls, toy animals, object props, and language. This book will prove useful to psychologists and researchers in the fields of human development, society, and family.
This book provides new theoretical insights to our understanding of play as a cultural activity. All chapters address play and playful activities from a cultural-historical theoretical approach by re-addressing central claims and concepts in the theory and providing new models and understandings of the phenomenon of play within the framework of cultural historical theory. Empirical studies cover a wide range of institutional settings: preschool, school, home, leisure time, and in various social relations (with peers, professionals and parents) in different parts of the world (Europe, Australia, South America and North America). Common to all chapters is a goal of throwing new light on the phenomenon of playing within a theoretical framework of cultural-historical theory. Play as a cultural, collective, social, personal, pedagogical and contextual activity is addressed with reference to central concepts in relation to development and learning. Concepts and phenomena related to ZPD, the imaginary situation, rules, language play, collective imagining, spheres of realities of play, virtual realities, social identity and pedagogical environments are presented and discussed in order to bring the cultural-historical theoretical approach into play with contemporary historical issues. Essential as a must read to any scholar and student engaged with understanding play in relation to human development, cultural historical theory and early childhood education.
This authoritative book provides a thorough awareness and a thoughtful appreciation of children's play for prospective teachers in early childhood education programs. The many rates of the adult are discussed: preschool teachers, day care specialists, inservice professionals, children's librarians, hospital play group leaders, and parents. A highly informative and useful reference, the Second Edition includes updated coverage on play research, especially with respect to classical and contemporary theories of play.
This book provides an analysis of children’s play across many different cultural communities around the globe.
