The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between language use and play level of three-, four-, and five-year-old middle socio-economic status children.The subjects were sixteen children who attended preschool programs at a midwestern university. The sixteen subjects were randomly selected from a population of fifty-five children.There were three age groups with approximately one-third of the subjects in each group. Half of the subjects were girls and half of the subjects were boys.It was estimated seventy-five percent of the subjects had above average verbal ability, nineteen percent of the subjects had average verbal ability, and six percent of the subjects had below average verbal ability.The socio-economic status of the subjects was determined through classification of parents' occupations.The Play Observation Instrument (POI), and the Language Observation Instrument (LOI) were developed by the researcher. The POI included four levels of play developed by Smilansky: functional, constructive, dramatic, and socio-dramatic. Fifty play observations were recorded on the POI. The LOI included seven categories of language use developed by Tough: self-maintaining, directing, reporting, logical reasoning, predicting, projecting, and imagining. Fifty utterances were recorded on the LOI during play.The data were analyzed for all subjects, for age groups, and by sex. Further, the data on the LOI were analyzed for language use in play situations. Narrative data were also presented.The subjects engaged in constructive, dramatic, or socio-dramatic play during the free choice play periods observed. Levels of play were not highly related to age. Boys engaged in constructive and dramatic play most often, and girls engaged in socio-dramatic play most often.The subjects used imagining language more than other language during the free choice play periods observed. Imagining language was used most often for reporting, directing, and logical reasoning. No clear sex differences existed for language use.The house, climber, and block situations elicited the most language. Most frequently occurring language uses in these situations were imagining, directing, and reporting.Imagining language during socio-dramatic play was the most frequently occurring relationship between language use and play level. Imagining language during dramatic play-was next most often occurring, and third most often occurring was reporting language during constructive play or directing language during socio-dramatic play.

In the current literature base of social-emotional development in early childhood there exists a paucity of research of empathy development due to the complicated nature of empathy in young children. The present study utilizes a preexisting dataset from a local therapeutic preschool program, and its methods include visual analysis, correlations, and independent samples t-tests. Results of the present study found that clinical behavior patterns negatively correlate with empathy development. Further, statistically significant group differences exist in affective empathy for children whose parents have a mental health diagnosis. However, results regarding adaptive skills were not found to be statistically significant. The present study contributes and expands the current literature base by exploring empathy development among a clinical sample of preschool-age children. The present study is also unique in its incorporation of specific family factors. / School of Education; / School Psychology / PhD; / Dissertation;

My essay deals with a problem in our society which, in my opinion, has been neglected. Even today in 2011, the quality of schools and preschools is extremely varied. This has been a problem for a long time and not nearly enough attention has been paid to it. In my essay I have tried to understand what it is that causes these differences in quality between preschools. With help from literature and research studies I have examined what quality in preschool really means. My starting point is an account of my own experience at the preschool where I currently work and a description of a study visit I made to another preschool which operates in a very different way to the one where I work. I wanted to investigate what the consequences are for children who grow up attending preschools of different quality. Do they have the same opportunities? My conclusion is that the problem is both more extensive and more complicated than I had first thought. It is high time that this problem received the attention it deserves and that radical changes are made in order to ensure that all children are provided with a learning environment of an equally high standard.

Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka vilka uppfattningar ett antal pedagoger har kring mobbning mellan flickor i förskolan. Med uppfattningar menar vi om pedagogerna i förskolan anser att det försiggår mobbning mellan flickor och om de har några erfarenheter kring ämnet. De data som vi använt oss av har varit tidigare forskning inom detta område. För att inhämta vår information har vi utfört intervjuer med sex pedagoger på två olika förskolor i Norrland. Informationen från våra intervjuer har sedan behandlats och analyserats. Resultatet av intervjuerna påvisade att de flesta pedagoger direkt eller indirekt medger att mobbning mellan flickor kan vara svårare att upptäcka än mellan pojkar, detta menar de beror på att flickors mobbning är mer subtil. En av pedagogerna beskriver hur ett barn som känner sig trängd av andra barn söker ögonkontakt med en vuxen, vilket pedagogen menar är ett tecken på mobbning. Av resultatet framkommer också att två av pedagogerna har erfarenhet av mobbning mellan flickor, medan de andra pedagogerna ger något otydliga svar. De har erfarenhet av barn som blivit felbehandlade, men de inte kan ge någon konkret definition på begreppet mobbning.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2000. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-106).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Dec. 14, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 38-39).

Thesis--PlanA (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Phil.(Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 247-285).