Play Activities Research Articles

Um processo participativo de desenvolvimento de melhorias em áreas comuns de uso infantil

Abstract Research which evaluates Social Housing (SH) in Brazil often points out unfavorable conditions expressed by residents, in terms of the residential unit and common spaces, as well as surroundings. Participatory processes to improve projects are considered essential for political, social and economic reasons, and user values need to be prioritized. Processes to develop improvements for existing SH, that include residents as protagonists, with active participation, may guide more effective actions. However, participatory processes for home and public area renovations require procedures to effectively achieve their technical objectives and meet the needs and desires of their residents with feasibility of implementation. This research developed a case study with the participation of residents of a small SH project in Campinas - SP, with a specific focus on improvements for the children's leisure areas. The study involved the public targeted, children living in the analyzed SH complex, in defining their leisure space through dynamics and playful activities. Qualitative results are presented of this participatory process, involving children. Knowledge gained is methodological, with lessons learned for the planning and development of participatory co-design projects with children.

Stage directions: Evidence-based professional development in improvisational drama for foreign language teachers

A significant body of research supports the affective benefits of drama activities in foreign language (FL) learning, yet little is known about how to train teachers to implement such activities. In this study, we tested a professional development program (PDP) aimed at galvanizing FL teachers to integrate improvisational drama techniques (IDTs) into their repertoire. IDTs are defined here as activities which place pupils in a fictional situation and stimulate spoken interaction. Nineteen Dutch secondary school FL teachers participated in the PDP. The goal of this research was to discover the extent to which (1) teachers implement IDTs according to the study’s definition, (2) the techniques become integrated into the teacher’s repertoire, and (3) teachers develop the self-efficacy to execute IDTs. All three areas were met with positive results as evidenced through questionnaires, logbooks, observations and interviews. Teachers demonstrated that they could inspire the fictional artistry of drama while simultaneously stimulating FL speaking. Frequency of implementation also increased after the training. Self-efficacy furthermore improved widely, both in implementing IDTs and speaking activities in general.

Expanding reader-response: tracing emergence, nested ontology, and affect across playful activities

ABSTRACT This article examines how youths and adults make meaning across three play-based contexts: digital roleplaying, cosplaying, and improvisational theatre. Thinking with reader-response theory and employing methods of nexus analysis, we examine how the latter three cases illuminate new ways of understanding and engaging with play-based texts. As a result, we forward three principles of play-based response that expand traditional notions of reading. Our findings support researchers and practitioners by offering new invitations to engage youth learning through play-based texts.

Child activity contexts and language environments

Abstract Activity contexts are increasingly recognized as important for the variation observed in the type and quantity of speech heard by children. However, there is little data from children’s everyday experiences to properly study this role. We analyzed the quantity of target child-directed speech (TDS) and other-directed speech (ODS) according to children’s activity contexts. We used Daylong Audio Recordings of American English children aged 6–17 months old from the Bergelson Seedlings corpus. A higher quantity of ODS per minute was observed in Solitary playful and exploratory activity contexts, while a higher quantity of TDS per minute was observed in Social activity contexts in comparison to other activity contexts. However, the interindividual variation found needs to be further explored. These results highlight the link between the language environment and activity contexts, and their importance for understanding child language development.

Paternal involvement and children's internalization of gender roles in early childhood

AbstractObjectiveThis study investigates the effects of paternal involvement on the frequency of gender‐incongruent activities in children's play at age 2.BackgroundRecent research suggests that paternal involvement is associated with more gender egalitarian attitudes in children and a more egalitarian distribution of housework tasks between sons and daughters. Although previous studies have tested the effects of paternal involvement on teenage children, the process of internalization of gender norms and roles in early childhood has not yet been investigated.MethodAnalyses are based on the French Elfe cohort with information at age 2 for 11,564 children born in 2011. Multivariate linear and multinomial logistic regression models were run separately for sons and daughters.ResultsPaternal involvement in early childhood was associated with more frequent gender‐incongruent activities in boys' but not in girls' play at age 2. The effect of paternal involvement further varied depending on the type of involvement: involvement in housework tasks and childcare was associated with more gender‐incongruent activities for sons but paternal participation in children's play increased the frequency of activities gender‐typed as masculine, independently of the child's sex.ConclusionPaternal involvement in housework and childcare in early childhood shapes gender‐typed activities in toddlers' play for sons but not for daughters. It contributes to “undoing gender” in play activities for boys and, in doing so, narrows the gender gap in children's play.

Conceptual PlayWorlds: A transformational model for children’s learning and development in an early childhood education setting in Indonesia

Structured and teacher-directed play focused on children’s academic outcomes has proven problematic in Indonesian early childhood education. This contrasts with the PlayWorlds model, which emphasises both the primary activity of play and conceptual learning. However, there has been little research in Indonesia on the pedagogical aspects of the PlayWorlds model in creating conditions for children’s learning and development. The purpose of this study is to highlight the distinctive pedagogical and contextual aspects of Indonesian PlayWorlds by investigating how the implementation of the PlayWorlds model creates conditions for children’s learning and development. Using cultural-historical concepts to analyse the data, the findings reveal a transformational model of PlayWorlds that highlights five key elements: teachers’ role as play partners, the dialectical meaning-making process, degrees of freedom, motives and contradictions, and the unity of emotion and cognition. This model is shown to support pedagogical concepts and practices by providing opportunities for children’s development in play through the integration of imaginative, cognitive and affective skills. It is argued that the transformative paradigm of PlayWorlds as an innovative play pedagogy holds promise for children’s learning and development, while recognising play as their primary activity.

Playful Activities to Develop Mathematical Thinking in High School Children

The research focused on analyzing how a program of playful activities influences the development of mathematical thinking in early childhood children who attend the preparatory education level, a process of transition between mathematical notions and the basic contents of this area of knowledge. The study used a quantitative methodology and quasi-experimental design based on the comparison of an experimental and a control group. The study population included 70 students aged 5 to 6 years. Initially, a diagnosis was applied based on the mathematical thinking questionnaire that obtained a reliability level of A=.855, through which shortcomings were evidenced in both groups. The final results showed a significant improvement in the experimental group, while the control group showed no significant changes.

Assessing Cognitive and Perceptual Abilities in Imaginative and Mainstream Elementary Schools: A Case Comparison

This study investigates the impact of imaginative pedagogy on the cognitive and perceptual abilities of elementary school students aged 7-8, using a case comparison approach. Focusing on a Waldorf school as a case for imaginative education and a mainstream Greek school, the research examines abilities including Spatial, Linguistic, Kinesthetic, Naturalistic, Mathematical and Musical. The study utilized a mixed method consisting of playful assessment activities and classroom observations to evaluate these abilities comprehensively. The findings reveal that students in the Waldorf school demonstrate significant advantages in the Spatial, Linguistic, Kinesthetic and Naturalistic areas, attributed to the school's imaginative teaching methods. More specifically, imaginative pedagogy is shown to resonate well with competences related to physical activities, language processing, understanding of the natural world, and visual-spatial reasoning. In contrast, there are no significant differences in Math-Logic and Musical abilities between the two school types, despite the traditional emphasis on language and mathematics in mainstream Greek schools. The study highlights the potential benefits of imaginative pedagogy for holistic cognitive development, suggesting its applicability in mainstream education.

Questioning to Elicit Inferential Responses: A Study of Teacher-Child Linguistic Interactions During Block Play Activities in Chinese Kindergartens

ABSTRACT Research Findings: This study employed a mixed-methods approach to examine how kindergarten teachers in China stimulate literal and inferential responses during block play. The quantitative study analyzed interactions in 17 randomly sampled classrooms from Guangzhou, observing one teacher per classroom. Using visual recording and non-participatory observation, we found four key results from ANOVA analyses: (1) teachers produced more utterances (n= 4,629) than children (n= 1,798), with 61.55% being comments and 38.45% questions; (2) teachers predominantly asked literal questions (78.77%), mirrored by children’s responses (75.71% literal); (3) a significant alignment existed between teachers’ inferential questions and children’s responses, termed “responsive interaction”; and (4) degree-holding teachers asked more questions, fostering more interaction and child responses. The qualitative study examined four successful and three unsuccessful cases to understand how teachers’ questions either scaffolded or failed to scaffold children’s inferential responses. These findings suggest that teachers’ inferential questioning elicits more inferential responses, with degree-holding teachers facilitating more responsive interactions. Practice or Policy: Degree-holding teachers’ inferential questioning enhances children’s inferential responses, emphasizing the importance of teacher education in fostering responsive interactions.

Pilot study protocol evaluating the impact of telerobotics interactions with autistic children during a Denver intervention on communication skills using single-case experimental design

IntroductionFor several years, studies have been conducted on the contribution of social robots as an intervention tool for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One of the early intervention models...

Keterlibatan Orang Tua dalam Kegiatan Bermain Anak Usia Dini di Rumah

Many parents work outside the home fora long duration of time, making parents less involved in childcare, especially in their play activities. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze parents' participation in children's play activities at home. The targets of this study were five households with children (5-6 years old). In Kalongan village, East Ungaran, there are working and unemployed parents. This research was designed using a descriptive qualitative method. Interview, observation, office research, documentary research and triangulation were used as data collection techniques. The results showed that parents who participated in play activities at home during childhood were mostly the same, i.e. working and unemployed parents with advanced education and moderate economic status. Then the type of parents with a weak economic background is also decreasing. On the other hand, the participation of other people in children's activities depends on the size of the family.

The effects of assessment instruction and test anxiety on divergent components of creative problem-solving tasks

IntroductionThis study looked at how an assessment instruction and test anxiety (TA) can influence divergent thinking (DT) components of creativity in a playful robotic problem-solving task.MethodsWe measured TA and creative performance (TD) under assessment and non-assessment conditions in 122 secondary students engaged in creative problem solving (CPS).ResultThe aspects of DT (fluidity and originality) showed a tendency to be impacted by assessment instruction. Thus, under non-assessment conditions, the learners show higher fluidity and better originality in the first occurrence of the CPS task. In the second occurrence, time spent on CPS decreases. Moreover, the originality turns to be impaired in the second trial and only student under assessment maintain their engagement in the activity. No correlation was found between TA and DT, and no gender or age differences were observed. The results suggest that TA does not influence the performance of the students involved in creative problem-solving processes.DiscussionWe discuss the findings in relation to game-based learning specificities. The assessment instruction in playful activities can be perceived as a positive challenge and even the students showing higher levels of test anxiety do not perceive it as a threat. Furthermore, if time constraints are minimized, the impact of assessment instruction on creative performance might be further reduced. The finding of this study opens promising perspectives to the research on innovative forms of school assessment and creative problem solving.

Playful activities mitigate relations between parental mental health difficulties and child verbal outcomes.

This study examined the role of parental involvement in the home learning environment in the association between parental mental health and child cognitive performance. In a sample of 174 three- to five-year-old children (52% female, 97% White, 7% Hispanic, 2019-2022), playful activities moderated the relation between parental general depression and child verbal reasoning and acquired verbal knowledge. However, there was no evidence that parental involvement moderated the association between parental mental health and child spatial reasoning. These results improve our understanding of the pathways by which parental mental health, even in a non-clinical community sample, relate to child outcomes and raise the possibility of leveraging playful activities as one mechanism to alleviate the potential role of parental mental health difficulties.

Consistory and Youth Surveillance in the Republic of Geneva: The Case of Games (16th–18th Centuries)

This article explores the theme of youth gaming in the Calvinist Republic of Geneva. This investigation is largely based on disciplinary cases found in the registers of the Consistory of Geneva. Legislative sources, and the registers of the Pastor’s Company and the Small Council, are also used herein. This study, deliberately placed at the crossroads of the history of games, childhood, and Calvinist-style ecclesiastical discipline, aims to shed light on the Consistory’s policy of controlling play activities, and to understand what was at stake. The author defends the idea that the surveillance and control of games played by children was intended to prevent them from straying from their religious education, but also to protect them from the excesses and dangers of abusive play and immoderate behavior (violence, lost money, insults, etc.).

A systematic literature review of playful learning in primary education: teachers’ pedagogical activities

ABSTRACT The study conducts a Systematic Literature Review of empirical research spanning from 2014 to 2023, examining teachers’ pedagogical activities and their role in playful learning within primary education, with a focus on the use of pedagogical methods. Twenty-one relevant papers were selected using a four-phase PRISMA framework. The analysis reveals four distinct phases of pedagogical activities: planning, orientation, playing, and elaboration. Teachers play an important role, being responsible for planning activities, facilitating and supervising students’ learning, sparking their intellectual curiosity, and assessing their progress. Furthermore, the study highlights that the teacher can also become a co-player. The findings are discussed, contributing greatly to the understanding of playful learning processes in primary education and helping teachers develop effective playful learning pedagogical activities, thereby fostering a playful learning environment.

Investigating the impact of an AI-based play activities intervention on the quality of life of school-aged children with ADHD

BackgroundAttention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder that not only impacts children's behavior, learning, and social interactions but also their quality of life. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) may provide new opportunities to improve the ADHD symptoms and quality of life of children with ADHD, especially through customized play activities that address their specific needs. AimsThis study examined the impact of AI-based play activities on the quality of life of 61 Saudi children aged between 8 and 12 years who had an ADHD diagnosis. MethodsAI-based play activities intervention consisted of twelve 45-minute sessions, delivered to the experimental group over four weeks (three sessions per week). The control group did not receive any intervention. Children and parents completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) at pre-test, post-test and follow-up. Results and outcomesThe experimental group exhibited significant improvements in all dimensions and total scores of PedsQL, with moderate to large effect sizes. These improvements were not observed in the control group. The beneficial effects of the AI-based play activities were maintained at the 7-weeks follow-up. ConclusionsAI-based play interventions may enhance quality of life for children with ADHD, with sustained improvements observed after 7-weeks. Incorporating such interventions into educational and therapeutic settings could improve behavioral, social, and cognitive ADHD symptoms. Future research should explore broader applications and long-term effects of AI-based play activities interventions.

초등학생의 자기자비 증진을 위한 집단상담 프로그램 개발 및 효과 검증

Objectives This study was to develop a group counseling program to promote self-compassion for elementary school students. Methods According to a single-purpose experimental design, a total of 16 people, 8 in the experimental group (EG) and 8 in the control group (CG), were recruited from 3rd to 4th grade elementary schools in J Island. A pre-test was conducted on them to measure self-compassion scale. For the EG, a post-test was conducted after a total of 6 sessions of 40 minutes, twice a week. For the CG, no action was taken while the experimental group was operating, and a post-test was conducted simultaneously with the EG. Results The homogeneity between the two groups was verified in the pretest. The post-test between the two groups showed that the experimental group's level of self-compassion was statistically significantly higher. Conclusions The group counseling program to promote self-compassion in this study focused on sensory play and experiential activities that take into account the developmental characteristics of elementary school students. This program was differentiated from previous studies by composing the program using various materials such as humanistic images, meditation music, and videos appropriate to the topic of each session, and the effect of promoting self-compassion in elementary school students was verified. The results of this study are expected to contribute to providing a basis for research and group counseling program development to promote self-compassion in elementary school students.

Participatory Design of an Embodied Mixed Reality Experience Aimed to Assessing Individual and Collaborative Behaviors of Children

This study is part of a broader project exploring the integration of Mixed Reality (MR) in fostering prosocial behaviors among children, particularly focusing on interpersonal synchrony (IPS) and its impact on collaboration. IPS, the coordination of rhythmic movements among individuals, has been associated with improved group cohesion and prosocial behaviors, such as collaboration. Traditional assessments of prosociality typically involve structured play activities for dyads, making them difficult to adapt to other settings. To address these limitations, this research aims to design a flexible embodied MR experience that allows children to choose between collaborative or individual engagement, reflecting the natural dynamics of children's play interactions. For this purpose, we conducted an embodied participatory design (PD) and usability study with 50 children aged 8-10 years. We provide a detailed account on how the PD process was orchestrated and an evaluation of user-system interaction, children's perceptions of play modes, and experience satisfaction. The results show how the MR experience, codesigned with children, supports a free play environment, allowing children to choose their preferred play mode. This study highlights the potential of MR in psychological research and child development, providing a new avenue for assessing individual and collaborative behaviors in larger groups of children.

O PAPEL DO LUDICO NO CONTEXTO DA EDUCAÇÃO INFANTIL

The central theme of this study is the use of games as methodologies in the playful learning process in early childhood education. The research focuses on demonstrating that playing is a natural human activity and can provide significant enrichment for children. Through play and games, children socialize, interact and learn from each other. The motivation for carrying out this project arose from the desire to make pedagogical work more relevant and enjoyable, highlighting the crucial role of play in the educational context for children aged 4 to 6 years. The central question is whether teachers can facilitate the discovery of reading and writing using games and games in a playful context. The objective of the project is to investigate how playful activities can serve as valuable pedagogical resources in early childhood education. The study also explores proposals for recreational activities suitable for the age group of 4 to 6 years, covering the thematic axes of Mathematics, Arts, Movement, Nature and Society, Oral and Written Language, and Music. The assessment included written, oral, frequency and creativity aspects. The research was based on authors such as Muniz (2016), Novaes (2014), Huizinga (2013), Kishimoto (2014), among others, and on historical ideas about teaching through games and games.

Playful Dramatizations – Doing German the Nordic Way

Nordic perspectives on playful learning have been defined by values and preconceptions associated with play in schooling. However, playful learning also emerges in specific ways as part of the patterns of relations that form classroom teaching and learning. Patterns can be understood as sociomaterial relationships in practice that create rhythms which become constitutive for specific teaching and learning practices (Sørensen, 2009). In the paper, I identify and trace ways in which specific patterns are created by multiple relationships that enable and hold together playful learning activities. With a focus on patterns of relations, I draw on performative understandings of playful learning which are holistically defined by complex sociomaterial relationships. The paper explores how these patterns enact Nordic ways of doing playful learning that are defined by both specific materialities, moods, and rhythms of doing language learning in secondary schooling. The paper builds on observations and interview data from a project in which teachers and students from three Danish schools experimented with playful learning in the school subjects English and German. In the project, experimentation and didactic development were enabled through action learning processes involving the participating teachers and the researcher. Experiments were scaffolded through use of the platform Drama Studio, where students can create animated stories using avatars in multimodal drama production. The paper focuses on a specific case in which the teaching of German became part of doing hygge as a seasonal mood in the classroom during an unusually long, four-hour German session. In the dynamics of enacting German as hygge, multiple relationships emerged that both held together and transcended the apparently delineated activity of doing German through Drama Studio.