The problem of this study was to discover the relationship between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles and social behaviors during free-play of preschool children in a school setting. This study also compared the field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles and social behaviors during free-play between age-groups and sex-groups. Thirty-six children from a university child development laboratory were subjects. They were selected from a 3-year-old classroom and a 4-year-old classroom. The research instrument, the Preschool Embedded Figures Test, was utilized to measure field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles. The children's social behaviors were observed during free-play for four consecutive weeks. The nine categories of social behavior were solitary, parallel, and group play; .unoccupied, onlooker, transitional, and aggressive behaviors; and conversations with teachers and conversations with peers. Correlations between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles and social behaviors indicated that field-independence/field-dependence was related to social orientations in preschool children and also related to the choice of play activity. Field-dependent children tended to engage in conversations with teachers more often than field-independent children. Four-year-old children who were field-independent tended to spend more time in solitary play than 4-year-old children who were field-dependent. Four-year-old boys who were field-independent tended to play more often in the manipulative learning center than 4-year-old boys who were field-dependent. There were significant differences between age-groups but not significant differences between sex-groups in field-independence/field-dependence. Some social behaviors were significantly different between age-groups and sex-groups. Three-year-old children participated significantly more in physically aggressive behavior and less in conversations with peers than 4-year-old children. Boys engaged significantly more in aggressive behavior than girls.

Expanding interests may be a behavioral cusp, resulting in widespread changes across skills, and therefore is particularly relevant in intervention programs for children with autism. Little research has addressed directly increasing the diversity of activities and interests for this population. This study describes a program developed to increase activities and interests in a girl dually-diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD-NOS) and Downs syndrome (DS). A multiple-baseline design across stimuli was employed to evaluate the program. The results show that the program increased number of total and different toy interactions. No effects were observed for overall duration of toy interactions. Results are discussed in relation to play skill instruction and preference assessment literature, the cusp, and autism intervention programs.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-07-25T11:50:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Karen Ambra.pdf: 3522031 bytes, checksum: 2af655ed53277c5da95825cc304ed5b1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-25T11:50:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Karen Ambra.pdf: 3522031 bytes, checksum: 2af655ed53277c5da95825cc304ed5b1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-05-22 / Fundação São Paulo - FUNDASP / ChIPPA, on the play of “make-believe”, are perceived as pedagogically relevant to Early Childhood Education. For this purpose, twelve children, attending this level of education, participated in the study, as well as four teachers who worked there, in this level of education, and one primary school literacy teacher, all of them from a private school, located in the south of São Paulo (SP), Brazil. The literature review showed that play is a difficult concept to define, still seen in the daily school life as a natural phenomenon. It has also been demonstrated that, on the contrary, it has a social character, which is why it should be understood as a child right and, thus, intentionally implemented in schools too. The theoretical perspective adopted was Socio-historical Psychology, especially the Vygotskian concepts that deal with the relations of learning and development, of language and thought, of meanings and significance, of mediation and zone of proximal development, and the role of play in the child development. The method consisted in the application of the Children's Initiated Assessment Tool (ChiPPA) to the participating children and the use of two questionnaires, addressed to the teachers: one focused on their initial ideas about playing and their presence in the daily life of the Early Childhood Education, and another, after having made available the information on the ways of playing of each child, to verify if this data could guide the teaching planning and improve the educational practices. The results show that the ChIPPA can guide the elaboration of pedagogical objectives, since they indicate the different levels of abilities of the children in “make-believe” play. In addition, the teaching discourses that initially defended the play, but did not implement it in the quantity and quality expected in the daily school life, pointed out that, knowing the children's abilities in the games proposed, new pedagogical perspectives were unveiled, that is, the need to extend the frequency of play and its duration; to propose situations of “make-believe” play and symbolic play, and also to analyze carefully the play to, based on this, propose better planned pedagogical interventions. It was suggested that ChIPPA is an important tool for teachers in the service of learning and child development / Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar se (e como) os dados oferecidos pelo ChIPPA, sobre a brincadeira de faz de conta da criança, são percebidos como pedagogicamente relevantes para a Educação Infantil. Para tanto, participaram do estudo doze crianças que frequentavam este nível de ensino, quatro professoras que nele atuavam e uma alfabetizadora do 1º ano do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola particular, situada na zona sul da cidade de São Paulo (SP), Brasil. A revisão de literatura mostrou que a brincadeira é um conceito de difícil definição, visto ainda no cotidiano escolar como um fenômeno natural. Foi também demonstrado que, ao contrário, ela possui caráter social, razão pela qual deve ser entendida como um direito infantil e, deste modo, implementada intencionalmente também nas escolas. A perspectiva teórica adotada foi a Psicologia Sócio-histórica, em especial os conceitos vigotskianos que tratam das relações da aprendizagem com o desenvolvimento, da linguagem com o pensamento, de sentidos e significados, de mediação e zona de desenvolvimento proximal e o papel da brincadeira no desenvolvimento infantil. O método consistiu na aplicação do Instrumento de Avaliação do Faz de Conta Iniciado pela Criança (ChiPPA) junto às crianças participantes e no emprego de dois questionários, dirigidos às professoras: um voltado às suas ideias iniciais sobre o brincar e a presença dele no cotidiano da Educação Infantil e, outro, após ter disponibilizado as informações sobre as formas de brincar de cada criança, para verificar se estes dados poderiam orientar o planejamento docente e aprimorar as práticas educativas. Os resultados mostram que o ChIPPA pode orientar a elaboração de objetivos pedagógicos, por indicarem os diferentes níveis de habilidades das crianças no brincar de faz de conta. Adicionalmente, os discursos docentes que defendiam inicialmente o brincar, mas sem o implementar na quantidade e qualidade esperada no cotidiano escolar, apontaram que, conhecidas as habilidades das crianças nas brincadeiras propostas, novas perspectivas pedagógicas foram descortinadas, ou seja, a necessidade de ampliar a frequência das brincadeiras e seu tempo de duração; de propor situações de faz de conta em torno do brincar convencional e do brincar simbólico e, também, de analisar criteriosamente a brincadeira para, com base nisso, propor intervenções pedagógicas mais bem planejadas. Sugeriu-se, portanto, que o ChIPPA constitui uma importante ferramenta para as professoras, a serviço da aprendizagem e do desenvolvimento infantil