It is the aim of this investigation to compare the use of normally recommended toys, ordinarily used in the play-therapy setting, with more sophisticated, "grown-up" toys, when working with twelve-year-old children.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OFJennifer Caudell, for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre, presented on April 10, 2020, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.TITLE: A WHITE WOMAN’S VIEW INTO AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE OPPRESSION: DIRECTING DysFuNkTiOnAl? BY TERESA MCKINLEYMAJOR PROFESSOR: Olusegun Ojewuyi “A White Woman’s View into African Amerian Female Oppression: Directing DysFuNkTiOnAl? by Teresa Mckinley” delineates the process by which the script was proposed, produced and performed as part of the Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Big Muddy Play Festival for the Spring semester of 2020. It was presented in the Christian H. Moe Theatre in the Communications Building on the Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus on March 26 and 28, 2020. Chapter one details the research and analysis work completed by the director, Jennifer Caudell, before the pre-production phase of the project. Chapter two describes and analyzes the pre-production process from deciding to direct DysFuNkTiOnAl? to the beginning of the rehearsal process. In chapter three, the discussion will segue into the rehearsal and production process; this chapter will discuss challenges faced, problems solved, tactics and agendas used to create a fully realized and unified production. The final chapter, chapter four, will lay out the post-production process, including the performances of the show and the director’s evaluation of the final project and process.

Holograms are a newer form of digital media. Digital media is changing traditional arts. They are also shaping how people play. How holograms have influenced play and crafting is not well understood. This project used dollhouses to examine how crafting a digital dollhouse relates to crafting a tangible dollhouse. Further, the project examined how playing in both dollhouses compares. Two dollhouses were created by the author/craftsperson. She reflects on her craft practices, relating her two experiences. Adult play testers describe their play experience in the holographic dollhouse and tangible dollhouse. The author’s experience creating is analyzed through its material, social and playful aspects. She found each dollhouses had both material and immaterial qualities. She preferred playing alone in the dollhouses and found the creation process of the dollhouses was both play and work at the same time. The play testers’ experience was also examined through material, social and playful characteristics. Their responses to the survey indicated that grasping objects was difficult in both dollhouses. They reported that they would have preferred to play alone in the dollhouses and that both dollhouses felt playful. An area of potential research that was uncovered involved a question of ownership of the dollhouse and how this may have changed the results of the study.

Background: There is limited data on active play both in terms of perceived competence and actual motor performance in children living in low- and middle-income countries. Promotion of active play in children is crucial for enhancing participation in physical activity and reducing the burden of obesity. Regular engagement in active play is important for promoting optimal development and increasing physical activity levels in children. Despite the increased interest in active play and physical fitness worldwide, many children in low-resource settings are thought to be physically inactive due to the lack of physical activity-promoting resources and programmes. The 2018 Ghana Report Card on physical activity reports that a high proportion of Ghanaian children do not achieve recommended physical activity levels and a high percentage of these children have poor motor skills. To date, no published study has examined active play among school-aged children in Ghana. Investigating the nature of active play by assessing perceived and actual motor performance among Ghanaian children can serve to increase our understanding of activity deficits, movement difficulties and associated factors in this population. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the nature of active play in children aged 6-12 years in Ghana. Specific Objectives: 1. To determine children and caregivers' perceptions of children's motor performance in active play using the Motor Coordination Questionnaire (MCQ). 2. To determine children and caregivers' perceptions of the importance of active play. 3. To identify additional forms of active play and games (which are not listed on the MCQ) that children and caregivers perceive to be important and meaningful. 4. To determine the relationship between MCQ ratings by caregivers and children. 5. To determine the relationship between children's MCQ and actual motor performance. 6. To determine the relationship between caregivers' MCQ and actual motor performance. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive and analytical design was used. Three primary schools were purposively selected for this study. The study recruited 406 children and their caregivers for this study. Ethical approval was sought from the Ethics Review Committee of the Ghana Health Service (GHS-ERC 052/05/19) and the University of Cape Town Faculty of Health Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC REF: 112/2020). Data was collected from both caregivers and children (aged 6-12 years) using questionnaires and the Performance and Fitness (PERF-FIT) test battery. The MCQ-caregivers and MCQ-children were used to assess perceived motor performance, and the PERF-FIT test was used to measure children's actual motor performance. In using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.0 (SPSS Inc, IBM Company, Armonk, NY), Pearson or Spearman's correlation coefficient was calculated to determine the relationship between children and caregivers' perceptions as well as the relationship between the perceptions and the actual motor performance of the children. Results: Both children (75.6%-94.2%) and their caregivers (69.3%-95.4%) perceived good motor performance of the children during active play. Children (82.8%-96%) and their caregivers (83.2%-94.4%) also regarded active play as very important. Twenty-four additional games were found to be of importance to Ghanaian children and their caregivers. Weak negative, weak positive and sometimes moderate positive correlation between MCQ items and the PERF-FIT items were found. Conclusions: This study shows that we can't rely solely on perceptions, but need actual motor performance, to accurately measure motor performance during active play. We found that parents and children do not accurately estimate the actual level of motor performance. Further studies should be done to understand confounding variables that may have caused poor relationship between perceived and actual motor performance. There is a need for a valid tool like the PERF-FIT to help in accurate measurement of motor performance.

The relationship between play gesture performance and language milestones was examined for 6 children with cleft lip and/or palate at 20, 24, and 30 months of age. Standardized measures of language development, language samples, and a play gesture protocol were administered and analyzed at each assessment. Results showed language delays for several of the children with cleft palate and displayed a complex relationship between play and language development. The results show parallels between single object use and vocabulary development as well as sequential play gestures and structural aspects of language use. Data from this study demonstrated slow play gesture and language development for children with cleft palate only.

The central question of my dissertation is “How can we play for our wellbeing?” followed by sub-questions, including “Why is play important to human-being?” “How shall we characterize the notion of play?” “How could play benefit philosophy, art, and education?” I investigate the questions through philosophical research that draws upon the existing literature in the fields of Hermeneutics, Cosmopolitanism, and the philosophies of education about play, philosophy, and education. I argue that play is a joyful aspect of experience that can potentially teach us an aesthetic manner of embracing differences and possibilities, especially concerning our individual growth and engagement in social interactions. To show this, I propose that play orients the player into seeing, thinking, and being differently towards a larger harmony or a fuller being. The player will be driven to respect others and accommodate differences with wonder and hospitality. Meantime, the educative play with its playful spirit can enhance the culture of justice and beauty essential to building a healthy, peaceful, and sustainable human inhabitation.

Sammanfattning Vårt syfte med denna studie är att undersöka hur de intervjuade pedagogerna arbetar med Speciella lekgrupper i förskolan. Projektet Speciella lekgrupper har etablerat sig på vissa förskolor i olika kommuner. För att få en djupare insikt ville vi härmed ta reda på mer hur pedagogerna generellt ser på leken i förskolan. Speciella lekgrupper används som ett verktyg där barn ska lära sig leka. Två pedagoger ingår i projektet och kallar sig för leklotsare. Pedagogerna väljer ut en nybörjarlekare med leksvårigheter och fyra så kallade dragarbarn, dessa barn är ”duktiga” lekare och ska fungera som en förebild för nybörjarlekaren. Syftet är att leklotsarna ska lotsa nybörjarlekaren i samspelet med dragarbarnen. Då vi ville få en fördjupad förståelse samt personliga samtal och åsikter från pedagogerna om deras kunskaper/erfarenheter kring barns lek, barn som inte leker och Speciella lekgrupper valde vi att utgå från en kvalitativ metod. Vi har utgått från semistrukturerade intervjuer där pedagogerna haft möjlighet att ge öppna och välutvecklade svar genom våra frågor och vi har kunnat ställa följdfrågor utifrån deras svar. Vi har använt oss av Foucaults teori om makt när vi har studerat vår empiri. Resultatet visade att pedagogerna anser att leken är viktig för att barnen ska lära sig samspela och fungera i framtida sammanhang. Även att barn ska lära sig leka för lusten och välbefinnandet lyfts i våra intervjuer. Vårt resultat visade att pedagogerna använder sig av olika strategier när de ska nå sitt mål att nybörjarlekaren ska lära sig leka. Dessa strategier är att: pedagogerna kan välja vilka barn som ska medverka i lekgrupperna, på vilket sätt de närvarar i barns lek, hur de väljer att låta sina observationer vara synliga eller inte och att de filmar sina interaktioner med barnen. Nyckelord: barn, förskola, lek, lekgrupp

Detta examensarbete ämnar att få ta del av pedagogers egna tankar och förhållningsätt kring barn som har svårt att delta i den fria leken. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att genom intervjustudier återge pedagogers beskrivningar av lekens betydelse och hur de ser på sin egen roll inför barns oförmåga att leka i den fria leken. I vår studie har vi utfört kvalitativa intervjuer med sju pedagoger i både förskola och försko-leklass. Det är den sociokulturella teorin grundad av Lev Vygotskij och Donald Woods Winnicots begrepp mellanområde samt Corsaros begrepp tolkande reproduktion som vi har förhållit oss till för att kunna tolka vår empiri. Intervjuerna har vi sedan tolkat och analyserat samt delat in i olika kategorier.Studiens resultat visar att pedagoger i förskolan uppfattar den fria leken nödvändig och ger relativt stort utrymme för denna. Det är i förskoleklass som den fria leken är mer begränsad. De intervjuade pedagogerna har en likartad bild om vad det är som gör att barn i olika sam-manhang har svårt att delta in den fria leken. Studien visar också att det kan finnas flera or-saker till leksvårigheter. Det kan handla om mognad, brist på förståelse, miljö eller att barnet inte har knäckt de sociala koderna. I studien framgår att pedagogers viktigaste analytiska redskap är observationer. En intressant aspekt som blev synlig i vår studie är att barn med sociala problem och leksvårigheter kan bli påverkade av svåra situationer i hemmet.

Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the locked Download file link and fill out the appropriate web form. / Play / 2031-01-01

Following implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act and Common Core Standards, play experience opportunities by kindergarten students have been compromised. Prior research indicates that how teachers make sense of play is most likely reflected in educational practice. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis was to gather the lived experiences of 5 kindergarten teachers from northern New England on the nature of play through pre-reflective description and reflective interpretation. Guided by Vygotsky's social constructivist theory as the conceptual framework, the goal of this study was to describe lived play experiences of kindergarten teachers. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were used to answer the main research question about the essence of play as expressed by teachers. Interviews were transcribed, reduced, coded, and analyzed for common thematic elements and essences regarding the impact of how play manifests in curriculum planning and classroom arrangement. Three themes emerged: community building, creative learning, and engaged excitement. The findings revealed that although kindergarten teachers experienced the nature of play differently, play naturally and unequivocally seemed to promote social skills and cooperation, language and concept development, and motivated and self-directed learners. Additional findings showed an incompatibility between the lived world interpretations of kindergarten teachers and the district curriculum expectations. This study influences positive social change by opening educational discussions about kindergarten pedagogy, leading to improved classroom practice.