Children's Play

Description:
'Enlivened with illustrations and case studies, this book gives an exceptionally readable account of the development of children's play from infancy through to adolescence. It also branches out to include humour, sports, and modern developments in electronic games, as well as uses of play in therapy. It will be a great resource for practitioners and play workers, and indeed for parents who wish to be informed of current thinking and research' - Peter K Smith, Goldsmiths College, University of London. 'George Scarlett and colleagues' treatment of play is both original and provocative. Unlike most previous expositions on play, they consider not only the social and cognitive dimensions of play but also its aesthetic nature. The treatment of youth sport was especially impressive. This is a 'must read' for students of play' - Anthony D Pellegrini, Professor Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Campus.'This is the most clearly self aware of the several current works in the psychology of children's play. It has the unique worth of being unusually comprehensive with respect to play stages, gender differences, private lives, neighbourhoods, humour, collections, video games, responses to stress and the uses of recess and play therapy. I particularly liked the demonstration of the continuing role of make believe from early childhood on into the theatric, literary and electronic foci of adolescence. These four authors are to be congratulated for having brought us as students and as parents an unusually readable text' - Brian Sutton-Smith, Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania.'Children's Play combines uncompromising scholarship with fresh, joyful prose. By looking at both the structure and content of play the authors help us understand the developmental significance of this complex way of being in the world. Each chapter contains exactly the topics we want to study and adds surprises that counter the folk-psychology of today. 'Children's Play' does more than overview the research literature; it engenders new thinking' - George E Forman, Emeritus Professor, Child and Family Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts.Play is a surprisingly complex and significant phenomenon in the lives of children everywhere. 'Children's Play' looks at the many facets of play and how it develops from infancy through late childhood. Authors W George Scarlett, Sophie Naudeau, Dorothy Salonius-Pasternak, and Iris Ponte take a broad approach to examining how children play by including a wide variety of types of play, play settings, and play media. The book also discusses major revolutions in the way today's children play, including changes in organized youth sports, children's humour, and electronic play.'Children's Play' addresses diversity throughout the book and explores play on the topics of gender, disabilities, socioeconomic class, and culture. Following are the features: broad in scope; covers various age groups from infancy through pre-adolescence and includes topics often missing from books on children's play, e.g, restorative play; discussion of current revolutions in play; provides full coverage of topics such as electronic play and organized youth sports; and, treatment of culture.Rather than segregate culture into a single chapter, culture and diversity issues run throughout the book to give students a deep understanding of how pervasively culture shapes children's play. Discussions include considerations of age changes in how children play, gender differences, socioeconomic class differences, differences based on disabilities, cultural differences, and typical versus atypical settings and environments. Helpful pedagogy. To assist student study, chapters include chapter-opening outlines, boxed material to amplify key points with memorable real-life examples, a socratic style that punctuates the text by posing new topics in the form of questions to be explored, a summary section along with a list of key words, names, and ideas, and a rich illustration program with figures and photos of children in various play settings.

Review:
'This is the most clearly self aware of the several current works in the psychology of children's play. It has the unique worth of being unusually comprehensive with respect to play stages, gender differences, private lives, neighborhoods, humor, collections, video games, responses to stress and the uses of recess and play therapy. I particularly liked the demonstration of the continuing role of make believe from early childhood on into the theatric, literary, and electronic foci of adolescence. These four authors are to be congratulated for having brought us as students and as parents an unusually readable text.' -- Brian Sutton-Smith 20040628 'The authors' treatment of play is both original and provocative. Unlike most previous expositions on play, they consider not only the social and cognitive dimensions of play but also its aesthetic nature. The treatment of youth sport was especially impressive. This is a 'must read' for students of play.' -- Anthony D. Pellegrini 20040628 'Children's Play combines uncompromising scholarship with fresh, joyful prose. By looking at both the structure and content of play the authors help us understand the developmental significance of this complex way of being in the world. Each chapter contains exactly the topics we want to study and adds surprises that counter the folk-psychology of today. Children's Play does more than overview the research literature; it engenders new thinking.' -- George E. Forman, Ph.D. 20040628 'Enlivened with illustrations and case studies, this book gives an exceptionally readable account of the development of children's play from infancy through to adolescence. It also branches out to include humor, sports, and modern developments in electronic games, as well as uses of play in therapy. It will be a great resource for practitioners and play workers, and indeed for parents who wish to be informed of current thinking and research.' -- Peter K. Smith 20040628 'Readers who are parents and students interested in examining and learning about the complexities of children's play will find this book wonderfully educational. The vocabulary and language used in this book is clear and easily understandable to those reading at the college level. The authors' optimistic and energetic description of children's play makes reading this book effortless. The information in this book leads its readers to a provocative examination of their own play experiences and those of the children around them. Readers will feel stimulated and tempted to engage in further exploration in this fascinating area of study by the content and concepts presented in this splendid book.' -- Steve Ta-Shen Yang Springer 20061127

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. Introduction PART I: THE DEVELOPMENT OF PLAY FROM INFANCY THROUGH LATE CHILDHOOD 2. The Emergence of Play in Infancy and the Toddler Years 3. Play in Early Childhood: The Golden Age of Make-Believe 4. Play in Late Childhood: Rule-Governed Play 5. Children's Humor PART II: REVOLUTIONS IN CHILDREN'S PLAY 6. Electronic Play: Computer, Console, and Video Games 7. Organized Youth Sports PART III: MAJOR SETTINGS FOR CHILDREN'S PLAY 8. Home and Outdoor Play 9. Schooling and Play PART IV: THERAPEUTIC USES OF PLAY 10. Restorative Play in Stressful Environments 11. Play Therapy Web Resources References

Author Biography:
W. George Scarlett is a graduate of Yale University (B.A.) and Clark University (Ph.D., Developmental Psychology). He has worked with such giants of the field as Jerome Bruner and Howard Gardner and has authored numerous articles on children's play and co-authored books on parenting, managing behavior problems, and religious-spiritual development in childhood. His past research at Harvard Project Zero, the Language and Cognitive Developmental Center and the Cambridge-Somerville Mental Health Center includes development of play assessment techniques for work with typical, at-risk, and atypical children. For over two decades he has taught courses on children's play. Currently, he is deputy chair of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. He is also co-editing the Encyclopedia of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence for Sage, scheduled to be published in 2005. Sophie Naudeau is a graduate of Sorbonne University and a former Fulbright fellow. She has extensive fieldwork experience with refugee children in diverse cultures (Bosnia; Guinea-Conakry; Sierra Leone; Thailand and Cambodia) and currently writes and conducts research on resilience and children's play among war-affected children and children of prisoners. Iris Ponte is a graduate of Holy Cross College and a former Watson Scholar. She has conducted extensive research in preschools in the United Kingdom, Taiwan, China, Japan and Newfoundland and has worked for Sesame Street Research at the Children's Television Workshop in New York. Dorothy Salonius-Pasternak is a graduate of Wesleyan University and was formerly affiliated with the National Research Institute in Finland and the Yale New Haven Hospital. Currently, she conducts research on adolescents with diabetes through the Harvard Medical School, Joslin Diabetes Clinic and Tufts University.