Play Episodes Research Articles

I feel well, i play well, i learn well: Direct and indirect divergent thinking mediate the role of well-being in supporting literacy achievements

In this study, we focused on children's well-being and dual manifestations of divergent thinking (DT), both direct and indirect, to investigate how these constructs correlate with children's literacy achievements. For this purpose, 107 children (52 % boys, mean age: 5.5 years, standard deviation (SD = 0.47 years) were recruited. Children's well-being was studied by counting their negative and positive affects expressed during solitary play and indicated by the positivity ratio, an index commonly used in adult studies but not previously employed in child samples. The same play episodes were used to examine indirect DT through object substitution generation (e.g., using a banana as a telephone), whereas direct manifestations of DT were examined using an alternate uses task that provided an indication of DT's triadic dimensions: fluency, flexibility, and originality. Vocabulary, morphology, and letter recognition tests were used to measure children's literacy achievements. Structural equation modeling analysis indicated that well-being is related to literacy achievements through indirect DT manifestation, which drives the flexible thinking dimension when DT is induced directly. We concluded that allocating multiple representations of objects in a play setting provides children with an opportunity to practice flexible thinking, a critical mechanism that connects well-being with literacy skills. This study is significant in revealing the possible mechanisms that explain how well-being affects children's cognitive and academic development. Practically, it provides educational practitioners with insights into monitoring children's mental states and promoting flexible thinking, both implicitly through play activities and explicitly through structure tasks.

Shared Construction of Social Pretend Play Sequences at the Kindergarten.

Pretend play is usually defined as an activity wherein objects and actions (but also affective expression, at times) are separated from their original meanings. Its developmental appearance is set around the second year of life, and increases dramatically in duration, frequency and quality when play episodes start becoming more complex, both linguistically and interactionally reaching its peak in preschool years. To date, however, little attention has been paid to how social pretend play emerges and develops before the age of three. Our study aims to investigate early spontaneous pretend play interactions between children aged 19 to 28 months attending the same kindergarten. We used micro-analytical coding of video-recorded interactions to explore sequences of interaction where children coordinated their actions to engage in social pretend play with objects. Our analyses showed that co-constructed sequences appeared organised by a turn-alternation structure already at 19 months, and children used embodied and material resources afforded by the sequential organisation of actions to dynamically manage their participation. Although explorative, our results seem in line with previous reports suggesting an early onset of social pretend play developing over a continuum from being predominately an individual activity to progressively becoming a co-constructed endeavour.

Gaze Orienting in the Social World: An Exploration of the Role Played by Caregiving Vocal and Tactile Behaviors in Infants with Visual Impairment and in Sighted Controls.

Infant attention is a cognitive function that underlines sensory-motor integration processes at the interface between the baby and the surrounding physical and socio-relational environment, mainly with the caregivers. The investigation of the role of non-visual inputs (i.e., vocal and tactile) provided by the caregivers in shaping infants' attention in the context of visual impairment is relevant from both a theoretical and clinical point of view. This study investigated the social attention (i.e., gaze orientation) skills in a group of visually impaired (VI) and age-matched sighted controls (SCs) between 9 and 12 months of age. Moreover, the role of VI severity and maternal vocalizations and touch in shaping the social attention were investigated. Overall, 45 infants and their mothers participated in a video-recorded 4 min interaction procedure, including a play and a still-face episode. The infants' gaze orientation (i.e., mother-directed, object-directed, or unfocused) and the types of maternal vocalizations and touch (i.e., socio-cognitive, affective) were micro-analytically coded. Maternal vocalizations and touch were found to influence gaze orientation differently in VI infants compared SCs. Moreover, the group comparisons during the play episode showed that controls were predominantly oriented to the mothers, while VI infants were less socially oriented. Visual impairment severity did not emerge as linked with social attention. These findings contribute to our understanding of socio-cognitive developmental trajectories in VI infants and highlight the need for tailored interventions to promote optimal outcomes for VI populations.

Young children and music: Views from varied perspectives

This issue is comprised of three original research reports as well as one theoretical article. Article topics include the relationship between vocal pitch matching and academic performance, empathic creativity during child–adult play episodes, encouraging vocal play among generalist teachers’ engagement with children, and redefining a teacher education approach to emphasize musical process over product and increased teacher reflection. The editorial highlights the value of inter- and transdisciplinary work pertaining to young children and music, and encourages authors from a broad array of professions to submit their work to the journal.

Fathers' and mothers' sensitivity during free play with gendered toys.

This study examined whether fathers' and mothers' sensitivity toward sons and daughters varies depending on whether they play with stereotypical girls' toys or boys' toys. In a sample of 144 predominantly White Dutch families with a child aged 4-6 years, fathers' and mothers' sensitivity was observed during two free play episodes while they played with their son or daughter. One play episode was with stereotypical boys' toys, and the other was with stereotypical girls' toys. Results showed that mothers' but not fathers' sensitivity scores, depended on whether they played with a son or daughter and whether they played with stereotypically boys' toys or girls' toys. Mothers were more sensitive to their daughters when they played with girls' toys than with boys' toys. In addition, mothers playing with daughters were more sensitive than mothers playing with sons when they played with girls' toys. Mothers' differential sensitivity during gender-typed play could be a gender socialization practice that subtly contributes to gender inequality in societal roles and careers, especially for daughters. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The impact of a community-based music program during infancy onthe quality of parent-child language interactions.

The early language environment, especially high-quality, contingent parent-child language interactions, is crucial for a child's language development and later academic success. In this secondary analysis study, 89 parent-child dyads were randomly assigned to either the Music Together® (music) or play date (control) classes. Children were 9- to 15-month old at baseline, primarily white (86.7%) and female (52%). Measures of conversational turns (CTs) and parental verbal quality were coded from parent-child free play episodes at baseline, mid-intervention (month 6), and post-intervention (month 12). Results show that participants in the music group had a significantly greater increase in CT measures and quality of parent verbalization post-intervention. Music enrichment programs may be a strategy to enhance parent-child language interactions during early childhood.

The influence of pretend ‘technologies’ on children’s cognitive development in symbolic play

ABSTRACT This research seeks to understand developmental processes of cognition, especially as these processes become observable in children’s role-play. In seeking to understand cognitive development in young children, we focus on how children incorporate pretend ‘technologies’ in role-play, such as non-operational cell phones, through pretend conversations and actions in the play episode. In observations with two preschool classes of four-year-old children, role-play that involved pretend ‘technologies’ was analyzed as to its effect on children’s ability to think abstractly and to form mental representations. This qualitative study collected observations and documentation of children’s actions and words as they played, coded and analyzed through constant comparison. Two findings were identified indicating that role-play using pretend ‘technologies’ promotes expansion of children’s abstract thought; and role-play with pretend ‘technologies’ enhances children’s perceptions and enactments of dual representation. With further examination, we distilled three ways that abstract thought and dual representation occurred during role-play with pretend ‘technologies’: through children’s symbolic understanding and actions, higher mental functions when interacting with pretend ‘technologies’, and children’s on-and-off line cognitive functions when operating pretend ‘technologies’. This study suggests that there are many benefits of children engaging in pretend play and that incorporating technology in the play scenario amplifies cognitive benefits.

Embodied meaning‐making: using literacy‐as‐event to explore a young child's small world play

AbstractThis article uses the concept of literacy‐as‐event to explore the embodied meaning‐making of a young child during small world play. Recent developments in literacy research, influenced by relational thinking, have led to a reconsideration of how meaning‐making unfolds in home and school settings. The concept of literacy‐as‐event suggests that meaning‐making is unpredictable and dynamic, responding to novel socio‐material interactions between texts, people, objects and moments. This view suggests that there is a need to ensure children have opportunities to engage with embodied and material meaning‐making beyond shared reading events. In this article, small world play after a shared reading event is positioned as enabling socio‐material meaning‐making through embodied and material encounters with people and objects. A single episode of small world play is presented for analysis. A multimodal analytical approach is used, drawing attention to the embodied interactions between a child, her adult and objects. Analysis of the data shows that the young child's meaning‐making involved moments of physical and material almost‐hiatus, followed by erratic movements. These often unexpected fluctuations, between stillness and motion, created generative tensions between the child and her adult, enabling creative swerves in engagement between narrative action, character traits and story themes.

A Migrant’s Chronotopic Identities in Playful Talk in a Classroom

Abstract This case study investigates a migrant adult’s identity work in playful talk occurring spontaneously in a classroom for Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults (LESLLA). Based on 12 hours of video-recorded interactions among four learners and their teacher, I identified five playful episodes. This paper focuses on two episodes instigated by a woman who told stories of her outside lives. Discourse analysis was performed through the lens of chronotope (timespace) to examine how she navigated multiple chronotopes, including the front-region classroom chronotope, to negotiate identities and how playful language was related to her chronotopic identity work. Playfulness began in the periphery of the classroom chronotope; then the playful language in it led to the playful formulation of outside-life chronotopes where her agentive identity was constructed. Her full semiotic behaviours blurred the boundaries between the classroom chronotope and the outside chronotope so that the other participants could witness her agency. The study concludes that the classroom chronotope itself showed signs of change in a forward-looking direction.

THE TURUCHAN PIKA (<i>OCHOTONA TURUCHANENSIS</i> NAUMOV 1934, OCHOTONIDAE, LAGOMORPHA) PLAYING IN THE WILD

The adaptive functions and evolution of animal play remain unclear despite the great interest of researchers to these topics. One reason for this is thought to lie the deficiency of data on animal play in the wild, as well as on certain taxa. The latter include lagomorphs, as there is no information at all about the play in pikas (family Ochotonidae). This report describes some cases of play in the local population of the Turuchan pika on the Primorsky Mountain Ridge in the Irkutsky District of the Irkutsk Region (52.07 N, 105.16 E). During two vegetation seasons (May–September 2020–2021), we observed 14 individually marked pikas (6 males, 6 females, 2 subadults) for more than 150 hours by the ad libitum scoring of the focal animal behavior in the morning and in the evening. All behaviors were continuously recorded with a voice recorder. A total of 15 game episodes were registered in seven animals, of which 8 episodes were video recorded (32 frames per second). A subsequent frame-by-frame analysis of the videos allowed us to describe play behaviors more accurately and to evaluate their time parameters. Following Burghardt, we defined play behaviors as repetitive, but non-stereotypic activities that differed from the common activities and failed to contribute to current survival, initiated spontaneously by non-distressed animals. We found one element that was present in all episodes of an individual play, one we termed “jerk-uplifting”. A “jerk-uplifted” animal rose sharply on outstretched hind legs (sometimes jumps), while the head was thrown back, and the front legs were extended forward. Such a movement took an average of 0.54 ± 0.34 seconds. “Jerk-uplifting " could be accompanied by body twisted around the vertical axis. We analyzed 30 cases of “jerk-uplifting” of seven animals. In six cases, it was a single act; in the other 24 cases, “jerk-uplifting” occurred in a series of 2–4 acts, separated by intervals of several seconds. Of the seven playing pikas, four were adult males, two were adult females, and two were young animals. In 22 cases (73.3%), a “jerk-uplifted” animal had some object in its mouth: most often a bunch of lichens, but sometimes a bunch of grass or a dry stick. Only once after playing did the pika begin to eat lichens with which it was “jerk-uplifted”. “Jerk-uplifting” could alternate or end with sudden jumps and runs. Some motor activity preceded “jerk-uplifting” in all cases. Another form of individual play was noted twice: the animal jumped several times, breaking off the ground with all four paws and bending in the air, then, grabbing a dry branch with its teeth, fell on its back and rolled from side to side. Then, the pika dropped the branch and abruptly jumped up on four paws. Two episodes of social play were recorded. Once, an adult female and a young sexually mature male alternately scampered after each other, then the female hid behind a stone and jumped out at a running male. These actions were repeated several times with a change of the initiator, following which the animals parted in different directions. The second time, the same pikas followed each other with one jumping at the partner. Thus, for the first time, all three types of play (locomotor, object and social) were recorded for Lagomorpha in the wild. This was the first documented evidence of playing pikas that involved different sexes and ages. The play in pikas included elements (jumping, spinning, falling on the back) that were associated with a temporary loss of control.

SCAMP: an analytical framework for examining flexible social playfulness around interactive museum exhibits

ABSTRACT In this paper, we present SCAMP – Social Configuration Affordances for Museum Play – an analytical framework we develop and use to highlight the relationship between designed affordances at interactive museum exhibits and different social playful behaviors they trigger and support. We do this through a selective case study analysis of Rainbow Agents, an interactive museum exhibit designed to support play across multiple social configurations. This variety of configurations is valuable for museum settings, as it helps museum visitors engage with each other according to their preferences and also enables the emergence of modes of collaboration and competition novel for learners in such contexts. Our SCAMP analysis of Rainbow Agents sheds light on design features which successfully support different forms of productive social play – including short and long episodes of competitive, collaborative and parallel play, spanning play, teaching, and receiving interpersonal interactions. In particular, we pay attention to behaviors representing a variety of mentoring and learning opportunities – in line with and extending the vision and goals of educational games’ and science museum exhibits’ designers and researchers.

The temporal structure of parent talk to toddlers about objects

Toddlers learn words in the context of speech from adult social partners. The present studies quantitatively describe the temporal context of parent speech to toddlers about objects in individual real-world interactions. We show that at the temporal scale of a single play episode, parent talk to toddlers about individual objects is predominantly, but not always, clustered. Clustered speech is characterized by repeated references to the same object close in time, interspersed with lulls in speech about the object. Clustered temporal speech patterns mirror temporal patterns observed at longer timescales, and persisted regardless of play context. Moreover, clustered speech about individual novel objects predicted toddlers' learning of those objects' novel names. Clustered talk may be optimal for toddlers' word learning because it exploits domain-general principles of human memory and attention, principles that may have evolved precisely because of the clustered structure of natural events important to humans, including human behavior.

Playful stories: Exploring the use of dramatic play in storytimes

Research in early childhood development widely supports play as a vital learning mechanism for young children. Consequently, many libraries are beginning to embrace play as an intentional strategy for meeting targeted early learning outcomes. However, sufficient research on how play can be incorporated into storytimes to support children’s early development has yet to be conducted. This study begins to address this need by exploring how two other informal learning environments—a museum and a zoo—use educator-led dramatic play experiences in storytimes with the goal of understanding how libraries might be able to incorporate dramatic play experiences in their storytimes to create a more in-depth playful learning experience. To elucidate the nature of the museum and zoo’s educator-led dramatic play experiences, this study explored (1) characteristics of their educator-led dramatic play experiences, and (2) the learning behaviors that children were exhibiting while participating in the dramatic play. The results revealed that the educator-led dramatic play episodes in both environments consisted of one long, immersive oral story with other types of play interspersed within the larger story structure. The data also revealed that the children were exhibiting many different types of learning behaviors while participating in the dramatic play experiences. Based on these findings, implications, and recommendations are provided for libraries around designing and using dramatic play in their storytimes to help transform the traditional library storytime structure into a more in-depth playful learning experience.

Creative play and the role of the teacher through the cultural-historical activity theory framework

ABSTRACT This article aims to use the cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) framework to analyse the participation of an early childhood teacher in children’s creative play, in order to enhance and support creativity. The study is grounded on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, and highlights teacher's play involvement and the arts as a cultural context for creativity development. Data sources such as video recordings, reflective journal and planning documents were used to describe play episodes from a play area titled the ‘Toy factory’. These were analysed by assigning each one to specific rules (e.g. technical, conceptual) and then creativity elements (e.g. process, product) were noted. Findings highlight that creative play underpinned by the CHAT framework is a cultural activity in which children and teachers (involvement) participate in the processes of creation and creativity (rules) in the context of the arts (degrees of freedom). Moreover, the teacher takes on the role of the mediator and scaffolds children’s creative play, using cultural tools while endorsing creativity elements. This study provides ample ground to propose corresponding activity strategies (Solve, Reflect, Share and Connect) as unfolded through the teacher’s actions, handed to children, to support and enhance their creative play experiences thus framing their Zone of Proximal Creative Development.

Salivary oxytocin after play with parents predicts behavioural problems in preschool children

BackgroundOxytocin (OXT) has attracted research interest for its potential involvement in many of the behavioural problems observed in childhood. Due to its logistical advantages, saliva is an attractive fluid to quantify neuropeptides in children. Salivary OXT has been suggested as a potential biomarker for psychopathology during childhood. However, several questions still remain about the extent to which, and under what conditions, concentrations of OXT in saliva can be reliably measured and are related to behavioural problems in preschool age children. MethodsSeven samples of saliva from 30 preschool children (17 girls) were collected in five different days at their homes. Three of the samples were collected by the children's parents at baseline daily routine conditions, and four of the samples were collected by researchers during two home-visits: before and after two 15-minute dyadic play sessions (one with mothers and one fathers) between each individual parent and the child. Oxytocin concentrations were quantified by Radioimmunoassay with prior extraction. Children's behavioural problems were assessed by the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF) questionnaire, completed by the child's’ preschool teacher. ResultsSalivary OXT measured in baseline samples could not predict any of the behavioural problems measured by the C-TRF. However, when measured after playing with parents salivary OXT showed a stronger pattern of negative correlations, specially with the depression and opposition scales of the C-TRF. Furthermore, salivary OXT was unlikely to be reliably measured using single sampling, but acceptable reliabilities were achieved when averaging several samples. Finally, the single measures of salivary OXT evoked after an episode of play with parents showed better reliabilities than collected at baseline. ConclusionMeasurements of OXT evoked after positive affect interactions with parents seem to capture aspects of the OXT system in young children that might be relevant for understanding the role of this system in children’s social behaviour.

Play and psychological safety: An ethnography of innovative work

AbstractBased on ethnographic field research in a high‐tech firm, we develop a process study of the complex and highly recursive relationship between play and the psychological safety that is key to innovation. Through our focus on play episodes, we identify several distinct play practices: generalized initiation of play, amplifying play, diffusion of play, and engagement in demonstrative behavior. We show how these practices generate psychological safety via two mechanisms: vulnerability and comradeship. Psychological safety is both a result and a reinforcer of play practices. Once established, psychological safety fosters several work processes on which innovation rests, namely engendering new ideas, finding collaborators, intensifying effort, and addressing difficult conversations and conflict. By articulating the mechanisms and feedback loops connecting play practices with psychological safety, our inductive model advances the understanding of the conditions that enable innovation in contemporary organizations.

Pretend play with objects: an ecological approach

The ecological approach to object pretend play, developed from the ecological perspective, suggests an action- and affordance based perspective to account for pretend object play. Theoretical, as well as empirical reasons, support the view that children in pretense incorporate objects into their play in a resourceful and functionally appropriate way based on the perception of affordances. Therefore, in pretense children are not distorting reality but rather, they are perceiving and acting upon action possibilities. In this paper, we argue for the viability of an ecological theoretical framework to pretend object play which has been traditionally understood as a representational and metarepresentational ability. We discuss the origins and basic assumptions of the ecological approach to pretense. We layout details by presenting a qualitative analysis of a pretend play episode and discuss the results of an experimental study inspired by the ecological assumptions. We discuss pretend object play in the context of ecological work on tool use. We address the relationship between the enactive and the ecological approaches to pretend play, pointing out similarities as well as differences. We conclude that ecological and enactive approaches have shown that it is possible to challenge accepted interpretations and seek explanatory frameworks that could move the field in new directions

Empathy and Hormonal Changes as Predictors of Sensitive Responsiveness towards Infant Crying: A Study Protocol.

Sensitive responsiveness refers to parents’ ability to recognize and respond to infants’ cues and has been linked to parental empathy. Additionally, oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) are hormones important for sensitivity and empathy. The aim of this study is to test the links between dispositional empathy along with changing OT and AVP levels and responsiveness to a life-like doll in couples and to verify whether these factors are predictors of responsiveness to a child’s cues. Exploratory analyses include predictors of sensitive responsiveness: polymorphisms of OXTR, AVPR1a and CD38 genes, personal characteristics and relational factors. The project employs standardized experimental settings that can be used with non-parents and the assessment of parental sensitive responsiveness towards their child. The participants are couples expecting their first child (111) and childless couples (110). The procedure involves caretaking of a life-like doll. Salivary samples and questionnaire data are collected in a planned manner. In the second part, the expectant couples are invited for the assessment of their sensitivity to their own child (Free Play episodes). Parental sensitivity is assessed using the Ainsworth Sensitivity Scale. This paper presents an interdisciplinary research project that reaches beyond the questionnaire measurement, considering many factors influencing the dynamics of adult–infant interaction.

Stars, Rainbows, and Michael Myers: The Carnivalesque Intersection of Play and Horror in Kindergarteners’ (Trade)marking and (Copy)writing

Background Research on children's play asserts that children's identities are performed and (re)formed in peer groups where they try out identities and make sense of their social worlds. Yet there are kinds of play (e.g., violence, gore, sexuality, and consumer culture) that are often hidden and taken underground, deemed inappropriate for public spaces. These underground spaces are potentially revolutionary (#playrevolution) as children disrupt power hierarchies and regulatory boundaries in both subtle and overt ways. These spaces are important for children who are consistently marginalized by intersecting identities, further complicated by negative perceptions attached to certain topics constituting dark play. Thus, what if we look beyond labeling certain play episodes “inappropriate” and consider how children produce and enact culture? What seems nonsensical and irrational to the adult gaze is about creative participation, agency, and autonomy for children. Focus Bakhtin described “carnival” as a countercultural space where folk ideologies dominated, hierarchies were removed, and people engaged in joyful laughter, playful mockery, and the enactment of various discourses. This unofficial space allowed for multiple voices, giving individuals an opportunity to (re)create identities in dialogue with others. For young children, free play can be considered carnivalesque—children learn to disrupt social structures and norms, question authority and power, test boundaries, and understand conflict. Taking up Bakhtin's notion of carnival, this study examines the lived experiences of young children as they construct (counter)cultural spaces of creativity, play, and resistance. Research Design Drawing from a five-month qualitative study in a Midwestern kindergarten classroom, I take up Bakhtin's notion of carnival, or the practices of everyday individuals when free from authority or boundaries. Data for this project were collected during writing workshop times, occurring 3 to 5 times per week for 45–90 minutes; the sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed, and writing samples were collected daily. The focus is on five children who sat together at the same table; limited to their table space, they navigated around curriculum while collectively cultivating their own cultural community. Through an analysis of artifacts, written texts, transcriptions, and popular media content, this study examines how children destabilize hierarchies and subvert the authority of traditional and “appropriate” genres. Conclusions Children actively took up tools and ideas from horror story genres (e.g., chainsaws, blood, and masks), while their local context served as the setting for their own stories: the nearby high school, Halloween parties, and popular costumes. They remixed stories to include curricular demands (e.g., true stories) with popular culture interests. However, they did not reveal these seemingly “inappropriate” topics to their teacher and the demands of school literacy. Their resulting written stories were not pictures of chainsaws, bloody deaths, and killer dolls: They were “masked” by attempts at writing letters underneath pictures of houses, trees, cars, rainbows, and people. Arguably, the children knew how to navigate the official space of school, understanding which ideas were appropriate for their secret conversations and which were appropriate for public sharing. In the midst of their play, children learned how to write from one another: Certain words were borrowed across the table, pictures (e.g., rainbows) symbolized common practices, and storylines were “copied” and reappropriated from others. These literacy attempts were trademarked and encoded on their written texts to signify belonging and participation at the intersection of popular culture and play.

유아의 놀이에피소드에 나타난 창의성 탐색

이 연구의 목적은 유치원 교사들이 작성한 놀이에피소드 중에서 유아의 창의적인 과정과 창의적인 산출물이 언급된 에피소드를 추출하여 놀이 속에서 유아의 창의성이 어떻게 나타나는지를 탐색하는 것이다. 연구대상은 G대학원 석사과정에서 유아교육을 전공하는 유치원 교사 57명이 작성한 놀이에피소드 155편이다. 연구 결과, 유치원 교사들이 작성한 놀이에피소드에 나타난 유아의 놀이 속 창의성은 크게 인지적 창의성과 정서적 창의성으로 나타났다. 인지적 창의성은 실험과 탐색을 통한 창의적 문제해결하기, 가작화를 통한 상상과 현실 경계 넘나들기, 놀이 순간에 적절한 유추 이용하기, 같은 물건을 다양한 방식으로 변형하기, 경험에 대한 독창적인 해석하기가 나타났다. 또한 정서적 창의성은 사물의 이면을 바라보는 호기심 발휘하기, 어떤 일에 시간이 가는 줄 모르고 몰두하기, 타인을 배려하는 마음을 통한 행복한 창의성 구현하기가 나타났다. 유아들에게 있어서 놀이는 유아들이 가장 하고 싶어 하는 것이고 자신의 창의적 사고와 정서를 나타내는 중요한 통로이므로 유아교육현장에서는 자발적이고 주도적인 놀이를 강조하는 교육과정을 편성 및 운영해야 할 것이다.