Title I funded preschools as a developmental context for children’s play and verbal behaviors

Abstract

This study examined changes across the school year in the play and verbal behavior during center based activities of 283 children in 22 public school preschool classrooms, funded through Title I. Using a time sampling method, observations of children in classroom settings were conducted twice during the preschool year. Repeated measures multivariate analyses of variance revealed that: (1) children were involved most in parallel play activities, and the amount of parallel play increased across the year; and (2) associative and cooperative play decreased. This pattern of behavioral change was present in 15 of the 22 classrooms. Conditional probability analyses indicated that associative play was an important context for verbalizations directed to both teachers and peers. At the time of each observation children played and talked with their peers most. We obtained one interaction effect between gender and time—the amount of talk from girls to teachers increased over the school year, whereas boys talked less to teachers over time. Classrooms were staffed by a certified teacher and an assistant and uniformly rated quite high on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale. This research demonstrates that public school preschools are funded and staffed appropriately, but that more attention could be paid to facilitating play and verbal interactions that might be important for later school success.