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Results for “Play and Playthings”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1975

The search for structural principles in children's manipulative play: a parallel with linguistic development.

Our study investigated the role of 3 structural principles--hierarchical complexity, interruption, and role change--in the development of children's construction play. The 3 principles are formally parallel to dimensions of language structure. Children from 2 to 6 were required to use varying combinations of structural features in order to build a series of modeled constructions. Predictions about the order of difficulty of our constructions, formulated on the basis of their constituent structural features, were confirmed by the results. Hierarchical complexity and role change, features of "deep structure", added significantly to the difficulty of a construction strategy. Interruption, a "surface-structure" feature, had, in contrast, a minimal effect. The results lend further support to the notion of a cognitive organization common to language and other modes of behavior.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Association between children's dental behavior and play behavior.

The results of this study showed that clinical distinctions can be made regarding the behavior of children in the dental setting and that these distinctions are reflected in the behavior of these children in an easily-arranged play situation. The existence of such associations of behavior presents the possibility that play behavior may be a reliable predictor of maladaptive dental behavior. If so, the incorporation of a play dental area into a dental office would be an inexpensive and convenient method of intercepting potential problem dental patients. If the results of this study can be replicated, they would support the initiation of a study to predict the behavior of children in the dental setting by means of easily scorable aspects of their play behavior in a simulated dental environment. Special management considerations could then be made to prevent disruptive behavior at subsequent appointments. The results also point up the tendency of problem patients to avoid certain aspects of the play dental experience. This suggests a possible treatment potential for the dental play area, using it as an instrument to desensitize appropriate patients to those aspects of dental treatment which distress them, and thereby reduce their anxieties, prior to actual dental treatment.

Child Behavior↗
PubMed2026

Perspectives on play for young children with disabilities in South Africa: a qualitative study.

PURPOSE: All children have the right to play. Children with disabilities are often excluded from play activities. We aimed to explore caregivers', older community members', and key stakeholders' perceptions and experiences of play as influenced by socio-cultural, institutional, and public policy factors. These insights informed the early stages of intervention development. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In-depth semi-structured interviews (n = 23) were conducted with caregivers of children with disabilities aged 2-5 years, older community members, and key stakeholders who had experience working with children with disabilities. Data were thematically analysed, following a socio-ecological approach. RESULTS: Four themes emerged: (i) making play doable and affordable, (ii) play away the challenges, (iii) playing together or not, and (iv) play opportunities. The results highlighted how intrapersonal and interpersonal factors and experiences shaped perspectives of play and play-based interventions for children with disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings emphasise the importance of a community-informed approach in grounding the early stages of intervention development, which may help to ensure that a future play-based intervention is contextually appropriate.

Humans↗
PubMed1979

Hand-held toy squeaker during carotid endarterectomy in the awake patient.

A toy squeaker held by the patient in the contralateral hand is used to monitor cerebral circulation during carotid endarterectomy. Regional anesthesia--cervical plexus block--allowed the patient to cooperate and give useful information, especially during the crucial period of test clamping. In a series of 300 cases, during a period of five years, it was instrumental in avoiding brain damage in 6% of the cases.

Anesthesia, Conduction↗
PubMed1977

The aggressive characteristics of abused and neglected children.

Awareness of child abuse as a serious social problem has risen sharply in recent years, yet there has been only limited and inadequate research on the abused child's growth and development. This study investigated the aggressive characteristics of young abused children with those of nonabused-neglected and normal children, a comparison not previously made. Results indicated that abused children exhibited significantly more aggression than the nonabused-negected and normal children on TAT stories and in a free play environment. Both the abused and the nonabused-neglected groups demonstrated significantly more aggression in a school setting than did normals. The findings lend empirical verification to previous descriptions of abused children as overly aggressive and support the social learning formulation that children exposed to aggressive parental models will demonstrate aggressive characteristics outside the home. The data are also consistent with prior research that links physical punishment in the home with hyperaggressiveness in children. The need for early identification and treatment of abused children is discussed.

Aggression↗
PubMed1975

Behavioral and hormonal effects of attachment object separation in surrogate-peer-reared and mother-reared infant rhesus monkeys.

Mother-reared and surrogate-peer-reared rhesus monkeys were separated from their respective attachment objects at 6 months of age and tested for the following 9 weeks to determine their home-cage behavior and their pituitary-adrenocortical responses to stress. Both groups displayed a strong immediate behavioral response to separation which was characterized by increased vocalization, increased locomotion, and decreased self-play. However, the surrogate-peer-reared infants showed a subsequent recovery in their levels of self-play whereas the mother-reared infants instead developed stereotypic behavior patterns such as repetitive pacing. The 2 groups displayed similar plasma cortisol responses to weekly sessions in an apparatus equipped with animated toy "monsters". Mother-reared but not surrogate-peer-reared subjects, however, also manifested elevated cortisol levels when an animal in an adjacent cage was captured and removed for stress testing. Mother-reared infant monkeys thus responded in a stronger and more prolonged manner to the loss of their attachment object than surrogate-peer-reared infants. These results suggest that infant rhesus monkeys form stronger attachments to monkey mothers than to inanimate surrogate mothers, a phenomenon which has not been as clearly demonstrated using other indices of attachment strength.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Exploration and play with objects in domestic kittens.

The responses of 12 kittens to unfamiliar and familiar objects was tested. Four categories of behavior were measured: exploration, play-exploration, play, and non-manipulatory contact. The results indicated that exploration and play-exploration were used for longer durations with unfamiliar objects and play was used for longer durations with familiar objects. Rank-order correlations between the measures showed that objects explored were not correlated with objects played with or play-explored. Analyses of the rankings revealed that small size and mobility were important object properties of play. The results suggest that exploration involves learning about stimulus properties, play-exploration involves learning about perceptual-motor properties, and play involves learning to coordinate movements with those of moving objects.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Alleviation of separation distress in 3 breeds of young dogs.

Twenty-four puppies (8 each of Shetland sheepdogs, Telomians, and beagles) served as subjects in this experiment which was designed to examine the effectiveness of 12 stimulus conditions (food, toys, canine contact, and human contact) on alleviation of separation-induced distress vocalization. Testing consisted of a prestimulus trial, stimulus trial, and post-stimulus trial each session 3 times a week from 4 to 8 weeks after birth. Overall results showed human contact to be the most effective, followed by canine contact, toys, and food. Breed differences were significant in only 2 of the stimulus conditions. In the typical case of effective treatment, the vocalization rate declined from the prestimulus trial to a low point in the stimulus trial and then increased again in the post-stimulus trial.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1977

The effects of methylphenidate on various types of activity level and attention in hyperkinetic children.

The effects of methylphenidate on a number of objective measures of activity level and attention were assessed on three repeated occasions in four types of settings: free play, movie viewing, testing, and restricted play periods. Subjects were 36 boys between 5 and 12 years of age and of average intelligence. Of these, 18 were diagnosed as hyperkinetic and participated in a double-blind drug-placebo crossover design. The remaining 18 boys, matched in age and IQ with the hyperkinetic children, served as a control group and received no drugs. Results indicated that compared to placebo, methylphenidate significantly reduced wrist, ankle, locomotor, and seat movement activity in the hyperkinetic children regardless of the type of setting in which the measures were taken. Relatively fewer significant drug effects were noted on the measures of concentration or attention. While concentration to reaction time, maze performance, and a movie viewing task improved during drug treatment, the length of attention to toys in free play was not significantly improved. Parental ratings of activity level were also improved by the drug. The hyperkinetic children were also observed to increase their level of task-irrelevant activity over time while control children remained relatively stable in activity over repeated assessment. Despite the positive drug effects, clinical observations suggested that methylphenidate may have reduced the interest of some children in their environment.

Attention↗
PubMed1977

Effects of a verbal warning and overcorrection on stereotyped and appropriate behaviors.

In Experiment I, the effects of a verbal warning, such as is used in Overcorrection, delivered contingently on the stereotyped mouthing behavior of two autistic/retarded children were examined. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used. The results indicated that the mouthing of one child was reduced to a near-zero level and mouthing of the second child was moderately reduced. Appropriate toy play and inappropriate object manipulation failed to show systematic changes in occurrence when mouthing was decelerated. In Experiment II, the same subjects and experimental design were used to assess the effects of a positive practice Overcorrection procedure delivered contingent on mouthing behavior. Overcorrection reduced the mouthing of both subjects. There were no systematic changes in inappropriate object manipulation but one subject did demonstrate an increased occurrence of appropriate toy play. In addition, this subject often engaged in aggressive/escape behaviors during Overcorrection, suggesting that the procedure was aversive to him.

Aggression↗
PubMed1977

An experimental analysis of peer social initiations on the behavior of withdrawn preschool children: some training and generalization effects.

In this study, positive social initiations by an age-peer was evaluated as an intervention for isolate preschool children in training and generalization sessions. During baseline, the confederate made few social approaches to the target subjects. The confederate greatly increased his rate of positive social initiations during the first intervention, decreased social approaches during a second baseline, and increased social approaches again in a second intervention phase. Increases in confederate initiations resulted in an immediate acceleration in the frequency of subjects' positive social behavior during training sessions. Additionally, for two of the three subjects, positive social behaviors were also observed to increase during generalization sessions. The results suggest that (a) peers may be trained successfully to set the occasion for positive social behaviors by withdrawn classmates, (b) increased social responding by withdrawn children in the presence of frequent peer social initiations may also generalize beyond the training setting, and (c) the magnitude of direct and generalization effects appears to be related to the entry-level repertoire of target children.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1978

The effect of filmed modeling on cooperative play in disadvantaged preschoolers.

In a series of three studies wer investigated the effect of filmed modeling on cooperative play in disadvantaged preschoolers. These studies were conducted both in a natural (classroom) setting and in a laboratory setting. We were unable to demonstrate a reliable modeling effect with these preschoolers even when an extensive descriptive verbal component was added to the modeling film. In a fourth study we showed that the identical treatment did lead to modeling in middleclass preschoolers but that the content of the extensive verbal component was not related to the effect. These results are discussed in terms of appropriate control procedures for this type of study, the role of an audio component in modeling films, and the implications of the lack of filmed modeling effects for the teaching of disadvantaged preschoolers.

Audiovisual Aids↗
PubMed1975

An analysis of children's oppositional behavior.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between children's oppositional behavior and the following two variables: number of commands issued and time from command presentation. Twenty-four five-year-old children and their mothers served as subjects. The results indicated an increase in oppositional behavior as the number of commands increased. Furthermore, most oppositional behavior occurred immediately following the presentation of a command.

Child Behavior↗
PubMed1975

The social play of two behaviorally disordered preschool children during four activities. A multiple baseline study.

The effect of contingent teacher attention on the social play of two behaviorally disordered preschool children was investigated. Using a multiple baseline design with reversal conditions, social play was measured on four activities: pegs and pegboard, athletic ball, blocks, and water pail. Baseline data indicated considerable variability in the amount of social play across the four activities. The initiation of the experimental contingency produced a dramatic increase in percentage of time in which the subjects engaged in social play. The implications of these results for the remediation of isolate behavior in young children with multiple behavioral deficits are discussed.

Attention↗