The problem as presented in this study constituted a proposed "preventive program" using a group play therapy approach which could be implemented by an educational system.

The primary problem of this thesis is to determine the effect of a modified, structured, and basically non-permissive play therapy program upon the intellectual, social, and behavioral level of a group of profoundly and severely retarded children.

I used singlecase A-B-A experimental design to examine the effectiveness of Adlerian play therapy (AdPT) for children identified with clinical levels of perfectionism on the Conners Parent Rating Scale-Revised and Conners Teacher Rating Scale-Revised. Participants were 2 children, a 10 year-old Hispanic male and a 7 year-old Caucasian female. To examine the effect of AdPT on maladaptive perfectionism and anxiety, the Child-Adolescent Perfectionism Scale and the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale were administered to the children twice weekly over 3 phases of the study: baseline (6 administrations), intervention (12-16 administrations), and maintenance (6 administrations) for a total of 24 to 29 data points. Additionally, parents and teachers completed the Conners Rating Scales-Revised5 times: (1) prior to study, (2) following baseline/prior to treatment, (3) midpoint of treatment, (4) following treatment, and (5) following maintenance phase.During the intervention phase, the male and female participants attended 21 and 16 play therapy sessions, their mothers attended 6 and 5 parent consultations, and their teachers attended 6 and 3 teacher consultations, respectively. Analysis of the child self-report assessments indicated mixed and inconclusive results regarding the effects of AdPT on target behaviors. However, results of the parent and teacher reports indicated clinically significant reductionsin maladaptive perfectionism and anxiety over the five points of measurement for both participants. The participants’ maladaptive perfectionism moved from the clinical to the normal range. Implications for practice and future research are indicated.

The Association for Play Therapy (2009) promotes play therapists’ awareness of personal cultural identity, obtaining continuous cultural knowledge, and displaying culturally appropriate practices. Play therapy research includes studies on working with specific culturally diverse populations. Founding play therapists, such as Virginia Axline, have made suggestions for toys that should be included in the therapist’s playroom. This exploratory survey inquired about play therapists’ perceptions of culturally sensitive play therapy, materials used, and perceived barriers to implementing culturally sensitive play therapy. Members of the Association of Play Therapy with at least master’s degree (n=385) reported on their ability to incorporate culturally sensitive materials into their playroom, most commonly arts and crafts materials. Participants noted less often the use of culturally sensitive board games and culturally sensitive dress up clothes, making them the least commonly used. Play therapists reported encountering barriers to implementing culturally sensitive materials, such as costs, availability, and space. Having space, specifically a designed play therapy room, was significantly related to the use or availability of culturally sensitive items, such as dramatic play materials, dollhouse and/or materials, and sand tray materials. Additionally, an individual’s status as a registered play therapist was related to the use of a dollhouse and/or materials. Some play therapists were able to overcome barriers through education, personally purchasing materials, and networking. Overall, the play therapist’s ethnicity, education and licensure type did not relate to their use of culturally sensitive play therapy materials. Play therapists could benefit from training on how to locate, incorporate, and use costs effective culturally sensitive materials. It was clear that play therapists valued continuing education and kept current on play therapy recommendations, indicating that those forums would be the most beneficial avenue to offer information on culturally sensitive material.

This study examined the meaning and role of play in Ghanaian early years settings, focusing on the beliefs of stakeholders, the expression of play in the Ghanaian early years curriculum and classroom practices. Framed within a sociocultural theory of play, this study followed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, which involved the initial collection of quantitative data followed by a qualitative data. In the initial quantitative phase, a survey scale, referred to as the Early Years Play and Learning Perception Scale (EYPLPS), was developed and used to collect data from 292 stakeholders (147 parents, 105 teachers and 40 head teachers). A preliminary comparison of the mean differences among the stakeholders using ANOVA indicated that the teachers and head teachers perceived play as a form of learning more favourably than the parents. This difference was further explored using cluster analysis to determine whether the stakeholders' education status might be a factor in explaining the group means differences. The cluster analyses revealed five distinct clusters characterized by participants' status and level of education - highly educated parents, teachers and head teachers; moderate educated teachers and low educated parents. The five clusters were compared on the play-learning belief score using ANOVA. The results revealed that the scale score was statistically significantly lower for low-educated parents compared to high-educated teachers, high-educated head teachers and high-educated parents, indicating low-educated parents were less likely to associate play and learning than these other groups. There was, however, no statistical significant difference between the scale scores of low-educated parents and moderate-educated teachers. The results suggest the significance accorded play depends on the stakeholder's level of education, with stakeholders reporting higher levels of education endorsing play as an opportunity for learning and acquiring social skills as well as academic skills. With the EYPLPS scores providing the basis for sample selection, four early years settings were selected as cases for in-depth qualitative inquiry using interviews, observations, photographs and analysis of curriculum. An analysis of the curriculum revealed that the curriculum does not emphasise play-based learning. It does, however, support the idea of children learning by doing. Therefore, the curriculum promotes activities that involve children's participation as an effective approach to teaching and learning. Interviews revealed that play first of all resonated with fun and happiness in stakeholders' perceptions. The majority of those interviewed perceived play as a way of maintaining children's interest in lessons, and as a break from learning. Classroom practices that emphasise teacher-directed academic activities and the stakeholders' unanimous appreciation of the use of rhyme and song in classrooms illustrate this point. Rhymes and songs were used at the beginning of lessons and also as an interlude when children appeared tired and bored during lessons. Other examples of how stakeholders perceived play included play as storytelling, a way of keeping children occupied, as a recess activity and as a form of learning. The findings are discussed from a sociocultural perspective, drawing a picture of the cultural meanings attributed to the model of childhood, play and learning in Ghana.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of modeling on the sociodramatic play of kindergarten and first grade subjects enrolled in an elementary school receiving Title I funding. One hundred and twenty-eight children selected from eight classrooms comprised the sample for the study. The children in the sample were randomly divided into eight equal cells on the basis of grade level, sex, and treatment condition. There were sixteen subjects in each cell.The experimental group subjects were exposed to four, ten minute videotapes of peers modeling sociodramatic play. These videotapes were produced and filmed by the investigator. The videotapes were filmed in the playroom, set up in the same manner as during the data collection phase of the experiment. Each of these videotapes had four different models (two male, two female). The sixteen models were selected through the use of a sociogram. Subjects in the control group viewed four, ten minute nature films, believed to have nothing to do with sociodramatic play. Treatment for both experimental and control groups took place on the four school days immediately preceding data collection.The sociodramatic play of each subject was rated during three, ten minute observation sessions. Thus, each subject's sociodramatic play was rated for thirty minutes. The rating was carried out by the two raters trained by the investigator. The instrument employed was the Christman, Werton, Schurr Observation Instrument, an adaptation of an instrument developed by Smilansky.- The C.W.S. Observation Instrument allowed for the recording of the frequency with which each of the six elements of sociodramatic play occurred during a ten minute observation period at thirty second intervals. The subject received a check mark for any of the elements present during each thirty second interval. The subjects were rated individually in play groups of four (two male, two female). The interrater reliability was established at .95.The data was analyzed through a multivariate analysis of variance with the six elements of sociodramatic play as the dependent variables and grade level, sex, and treatment condition as the independent variables. The following null hypotheses were tested: Hypothesis I: There is no significant difference in sociodramatic play between male and female subjects; Hypothesis II: There is no significant difference in sociodramatic play between kindergarten and first grade children and; Hypothesis III: There is no significant difference in sociodramatic play between experimental and control group subjects.While the three-way interaction was not significant (p < .25), each independent variable was involved in significant two-way interactions. This rendered the main effects uninterpretable. However, since grade level was involved in both significant two-way interactions the data was analyzed by nesting sex and treatment within grade level.There were significant differences in the sociodramatic play of kindergarten subjects due to sex, with males engaging in more sociodramatic play than females (p < .0001). The sex differences among first graders were not significant (p <.48).There were significant differences among kindergarten subjects due to treatment conditions with those exposed to peer modeling engaging in more sociodramatic play than those exposed to nature films (p < .0001). The differences due to treatment were not significant for first grade subjects (p < .43)

I denna rapport redogörs för ett examensarbete av Susanna Lundholm-Jonsson i samarbete med företaget Naturlek. Arbetet har bestått i att ta fram en ny lekprodukt med ett nytt tänkande, men ändå inom ramen för Naturleks filosofi/profil. Naturlek framställer lekprodukter i massivt svenskt ekträ, produkter som är tänkta att passa i de flesta lekmiljöer och som inte ska fordra något underhåll. Arbetets tyngdpunkt har legat på att ta fram en lekprodukt som har ett mjukt och naturligt formspråk och som på något sätt symboliserar det enkla och naturliga. Syftet med själva ”Lektrappan” är att den ska inspirera och locka till lek, och att den ska erbjuda barnen ett alternativ till de lekprodukter som finns idag. Fokus har även legat på att den ska vara möjlig att tillverka till en rimlig kostnad. Brukargrupper har intervjuats bestående av förskollärare, lärare, skolbarn och förskolebarn. Studiebesök och även enkla workshops har gjorts där barnen har fått dela med sig av hur de tänker sig att en lekplats kan se ut. Synpunkterna har sedan använts som underlag för idéarbetet. I idégenereringsfasen togs ett antal koncept fram för presentation för företaget. Ett koncept valdes ut och vidareutvecklades genom skisser, modeller och 3D-modeller. Arbetet resulterade i ”Lektrappan” där stommen är en ekstam, med trapporna som symboliserar. / The essay describes the bachelor project by Susanna Lundholm-Jonsson, in collaboration with Naturlek. Naturlek is a company founded in 2005, part of AL Land Consulting AB of Bro. Naturlek specializes in nature-friendly, recyclable products originated in Sweden, mainly used in playgrounds, products that require very little maintenance. The assignment was to design playground equipment with a new approach, yet suitable to their range of products. Emphasis has been on developing a product that has a soft and natural expression, somehow symbolizing the simple and natural. The purpose of "Lektrappan" is to inspire and encourage children to play, and it offers an alternative to the playground equipment available today. Focus has also been on the possibility to produce it at a reasonable cost. User groups were interviewed, consisting of pre-school teachers, teachers, school children and preschoolers. Study vistits as well as workshops were made, in which the children were given opportunity to share their thoughts about what a playground might look like. These views have since been used as a basis for the idea generating process. In this process a number of concepts were developed for presentation to the company. One concept was selected and further developed through sketches, models and 3D models. The work resulted in "Lektrappan". The frame is a stem of oak, with stairs that symbolizes the leaves.

The aim of this study is to increase knowledge and understanding of free play or free fun time importance for children of age around five years in preschool, in order to promote children’s development and learning. The focus was on exploring and better understanding of teacher’s and educators’ approach to the free fun play time as a tool in their educational work, and also about their own role in this context as well as analyzing of forms, rules and structures spontaneously created by groups of children having free play fun time. Another important moment of this study was to give more light on approaches to this issue in education theories by Piaget, Vygotsky and Freud among others. As to the practical experimental part of the study it has been performed at a preschool and kindergarten in a suburb at the outskirts of Stockholm, with four employed educators there and with groups of children of age around five. The main methods used were interviews with teachers and observation of the children during their free fun play time.   To summarize the most significant conclusions on the educators approach to the free fun play time it can be mentioned that some of them use the free fun play as educational tools for learning, they see upon that as a part of established education. Some approach the free play time as an important and necessary ingredient of children school time, but not as an official educational activity and method. All are positive to the free play time in the way that it contributes to children’s social competence, to development of their language skills and to their emotional and psychological development. They look upon their own role in this context of the free play fun time as inspiration giving, leading and regulating. / Betyg G

The aim of this study was to examine how children in the age of 5 are communicating in play at the preschool and how their fantasy games are different from each other. In this study, I have gained a greater insight on how to control children's imagination games. My approach has been the observation of three fun times where I also used me out of a voice recorder to record children's voices when their children are communicating with each other during the time of play at the preschool.The results of my study showed that children's fantasy games based on children's past experiences in which children use different themes and characters. The children's communication activities are different from each other. Children have different themes but the deck is based on imagination and communication.Fantasy games that children perform is rooted in the experiences that children get through to experience and see the reality

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.