Play in Pre‐school Centres–i. Play Measures and Their Relation to Age. Sex and I.Q.

Abstract

SUMMARY The free play of 109 children aged 3–4 was observed in 12 pre‐school centres, and assessed mi a number of scales. Most of the play measures were found to be age‐related; the major sex differences in play were in the choice of play material and fantasy theme. There were correlations between some of the play measures and the children's unstandardised verbal and non‐verbal test scores. The findings are discussed in relation to pre‐school educational practice.

A Review and Critique of Smilansky's Classification Scheme and the “Nested Hierarchy” of Play Categories

“…As Dale (1989) has expressed it in a study of play, including cooperative pretend play between siblings in the home, "one of the main categories of pretending shown with siblings is not classified in the existing schedules for this age group" (p.757). Attempts to deal more generally with play in terms of less and more mature forms have simply rated play on a general complexity dimension (e.g., Tizard, Philps, & Plewis, 1976).…”

Preschoolers' Play Behaviors With Peers in Classroom and Playground Settings

“…Finally, it has been common practice for researchers to combine behavioral data gathered from both indoor and outdoor play settings for analyses. These analyses overlook the effects of repeated measures analyses on children's behaviors, although the same children were observed in two different settings-classroom and playground (e.g., Henniger, 1985;Tizard et al, 1976aTizard et al, , 1976b. Without using repeated measures analyses, there is a substantial increase in error variance, since the effect of child differences becomes a source of the variance.…”

“…First, previous researchers did not consider the contextual features of each setting (i.e. , quality ofindoor and outdoor environments) in their studies (e.g., Green, 1933;Henniger, 1985;Tizard et al, 1976aTizard et al, , 1976b. According to ecologically oriented psychologists, the interactive social context elicits and organizes certain kinds of behavior.…”

Effects of Toys on the Play Quality of Preschool Children: Influence of Gender, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status

“…Yet there has been scant research on the effects of toys on play, even though 90 % of young children's play involves toys (Tizzard et al 1976). Teachers have little empirical evidence, then, to guide the important decisions they make about which toys to provide in their classrooms.…”