The Role of Physical Activity and Touch in Children’s Social Bonding

Physical activity (PA) and touch, long known to facilitate interpersonal affiliation in adults and non-human primates, are common elements of children’s free play. However, no research has examined how children’s play involving PA and touch is linked with social bonding (i.e., positive emotional states and behaviors that help create, maintain and characterize affiliation and attachment among individuals). This paper reports on two novel studies designed to explore these links in children’s play. In two studies, we investigated associations between PA, touch and prosociality in 5-to-8-year-old children. In a naturalistic observation study (N = 50), we assessed the amount of PA, smiling/laughing, touch, and prosociality in children’s play behavior during school breaks. PA levels were also measured indirectly via heart rate monitors (HRM). The findings revealed that observed-PA was associated with the amount of smiling/laughing. PA (observed and HRM) was also associated with the amount of touch. In a second study (N = 84), we experimentally tested the effect of touch on helping behavior in the context of physically-active play. In pairs, children ran to collect felt shapes which they placed either onto each other (touch condition) or onto a board (no-touch condition). Subsequent helping behavior was assessed in a separate task. There was a non-significant trend towards more helping in the touch condition. We discuss the findings in terms of the significance of PA and touch for social bonding in childhood and offer suggestions for future research in this underexplored area.

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Positive Psychology Competences of Pre-School Teachers as a Tool for Understanding and Nurturing Children's Play

Innovative Practices in Teacher Preparation and Graduate-Level Teacher Education Programs - Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-3068-8.ch009 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 134-152 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sanja Tatalović Vorkapić ◽

Petra Prović

Keyword(s):

Positive Psychology ◽

Natural Environment ◽

Common Ground ◽

Preschool Teachers ◽

Future Research ◽

Basic Principles ◽

Children's Play ◽

Research And Practice ◽

Children’S Play ◽

The Common

The Positive Psychology frame and definition present a natural environment for understanding and researching children's play in the context of nurturing overall positive characteristics in children's development. Therefore, this article presents a structured review of the common ground between the basic principles of positive psychology and children's play in the context of early and preschool institutions. Also, it demonstrates the implementation of positive psychology principles in children's play and the methods by which positive psychology could be promoted through children's play in kindergartens. Within that frame, the importance is given to the needed preschool teachers' competences in this area. In this context, various activities are presented that reflect a common ground of positive psychology and children's play. Finally, some significant guidelines for future research and practice enhancement are presented.

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Persepsi Orangtua tentang Bermain Berisiko pada Anak Usia Dini

Jurnal PG-PAUD Trunojoyo : Jurnal Pendidikan dan Pembelajaran Anak Usia Dini ◽

10.21107/pgpaudtrunojoyo.v7i1.6834 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 23-31

Author(s):

Baiq Nada Buahana

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

At Risk ◽

Preschool Children ◽

Research Subjects ◽

Range Of Movement ◽

Children's Play ◽

Mothers And Fathers ◽

Children’S Play

Risk play is outdoors play which involves a lot of physical activity. Parents' concerns will limit the range of movement to explore when playing risky. This research explores parents 'perceptions about playing risk as viewed from the child's age, gender, and reviews parents' knowledge about playing risk. The study was conducted in Purbalingga, Indonesia. The research subjects involved 33 mothers and 33 fathers of preschool children with ages ranging from 4 to 6 years. The study findings show that mothers and fathers have the same risk playing perception. Parents provide the highest support for children's play activities at risk such as climbing and jumping from a height. As for other activities, parents have concerns about the safety of children during these activities. Judging from the age of the father and mother allow children aged 4 years with 40%, 5 years 45% and 6 years 50% while seen from jrniskelmin, parents allow boys more than girls to play at risk with percentage of 55% compared to 40%. Perceptions of parents have an impact on providing risky playing opportunities.

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Development and Evaluation of A New Measure of Children’s Play: The Children’s Play Scale (CPS)

10.21203/rs.3.rs-74855/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Helen Dodd ◽

Rachel J. Nesbit ◽

Laura Maratchi

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Parent Report ◽

Future Research ◽

Physical And Mental Health ◽

Public Health Perspective ◽

Informant Agreement ◽

Retest Reliability ◽

Children's Play ◽

Children’S Play ◽

Test Retest Reliability

Abstract Background There is increasing recognition of the importance of children’s play from a public health perspective given the links between play and children’s physical and mental health. The present research aimed to develop and evaluate a new parent-report questionnaire that measures the time children spend playing and how adventurously children play, across a range of places.Method The questionnaire was developed with input from a diverse group of parents and experts in children’s play. It was designed to yield a range of metrics including time spent playing per year, time spent playing outside, time spent playing in nature and level of adventurous play. The reliability of the questionnaire was then evaluated with 245 parents (149 mothers, 96 fathers) of 154 children aged 5 to 11 years. All participants completed the measure at time 1. At time 2, an average of 20 days later, 184 parents (111 mothers and 73 fathers) of 99 children completed the measure again. Results Cross-informant agreement, evaluated using Concordance Correlation Coefficients (CCCs), ranged from 0.36 to 0.51. These fall in the poor to moderate range and are largely comparable to cross-informant agreement on other measures. Test-retest reliability for mothers was good (range 0.67 - 0.76) for time spent playing metrics. For fathers, test-retest reliability was lower (range 0.39 - 0.63). For both parents the average level of adventurous play variable had relatively poor test retest reliability (mothers = 0.49, fathers = 0.42). This variable also showed a significant increase from time 1 to time 2. This instability over time may be due to the timing of the research in relation to the Covid-19 lockdown and associated shifts in risk perception.Conclusions The measure will be of value in future research focusing on the public health benefits and correlates of children’s play as well as researchers interested in children’s outdoor play and play in nature specifically. The development of the measure in collaboration with parents and experts in children’s play is a significant strength. It will be of value for future research to further validate the measure against play diaries or activity monitors.

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Development and evaluation of a new measure of children’s play: the Children’s Play Scale (CPS)

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-10812-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Helen F. Dodd ◽

Rachel J. Nesbit ◽

Laura R. Maratchi

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Parent Report ◽

Future Research ◽

Physical And Mental Health ◽

Public Health Perspective ◽

Informant Agreement ◽

Retest Reliability ◽

Children's Play ◽

Children’S Play ◽

Test Retest Reliability

Abstract Background There is increasing recognition of the importance of children’s play from a public health perspective, given the links between play and children’s physical and mental health. The present research aimed to develop and evaluate a new parent-report questionnaire that measures the time children spend playing across a range of places and includes a supplement to evaluate how adventurously children play. Methods The questionnaire was developed with input from a diverse group of parents and experts in children’s play. It was designed to yield a range of metrics including time spent playing per year, time spent playing outside, time spent playing in nature and level of adventurous play. The reliability of the questionnaire was then evaluated with 245 parents (149 mothers, 96 fathers) of 154 children aged 5–11 years. All participants completed the measure at time 1. At time 2, an average of 20 days later, 184 parents (111 mothers and 73 fathers) of 99 children completed the measure again. Results Cross-informant agreement, evaluated using Concordance Correlation Coefficients (CCCs), ranged from 0.36 to 0.51. These fall in the poor to moderate range and are largely comparable to cross-informant agreement on other measures. Test-retest reliability for mothers was good (range 0.67–0.76) for time spent playing metrics. For fathers, test-retest reliability was lower (range 0.39–0.63). For both parents the average level of adventurous play variable had relatively poor test retest reliability (mothers = 0.49, fathers = 0.42). This variable also showed a significant increase from time 1 to time 2. This instability over time may be due to the timing of the research in relation to the Covid-19 lockdown and associated shifts in risk perception. Conclusions The measure will be of value in future research focusing on the public health benefits and correlates of children’s play as well as researchers interested in children’s outdoor play and play in nature specifically. The development of the measure in collaboration with parents and experts in children’s play is a significant strength. It will be of value for future research to further validate the measure against play diaries or activity monitors.

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Role Substitution in Preschoolers’ Play with Toy Characters

Psychological Science and Education ◽

10.17759/pse.2021260102 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 41-50

Author(s):

I.A. Ryabkova ◽

E.G. Sheina

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Everyday Life ◽

Role Playing ◽

Free Play ◽

Specific Function ◽

Children's Play ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Children’S Play ◽

Family Home

This paper is a part of the research devoted to observing free play with different role-playing materials in preschool children.Here we describe the results of our observations of preschoolers’ play with toy characters (dolls, figures, soft toys, etc.).It was found that there are significant gender differences in this type of play: boys either do not play at all or play in the director’s position; at the same time, if they take on a role, they tend to ignore toy characters.As it is shown, the number of role-playing names is quite high in the children’s play with toy characters.This may reflect the specific function of this type of material in play.Among the prevailing play topics are family, home, pets, everyday life and motives of care and attention in general.Age analysis showed that the number of children with roles increases at 6 years, while at 5 years — when play is at its peak – role substitution in playing with toy characters is rather ignored by children.

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The Child-Psychoanalytic Play Interview: A Technique for Studying Thematic Content

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association ◽

10.1177/000306519103900407 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 39 (4) ◽

pp. 1015-1036 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Steven Marans ◽

Linda Mayes ◽

Domenic Cicchetti ◽

Kirsten Dahl ◽

Wendy Marans ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Interobserver Agreement ◽

Clinical Work ◽

Future Research ◽

Therapeutic Work ◽

Children's Play ◽

Thematic Content ◽

Play Session ◽

Children’S Play ◽

Investigative Technique

Child psychoanalysts have long viewed play as a reflection of children's inner lives and have used the themes children represent in play for diagnostic and therapeutic work. Given the central role children's play has for clinical work, few studies have addressed play empirically. This paper presents a technique for studying the thematic content of children's play as it emerges during a play session with a child analyst. We report the steps involved in developing this investigative technique and describe the interobserver agreement among four raters using the technique with videotaped play sessions. Implications for future research using such an approach are discussed.

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Children's Play and Development

Advances in Early Childhood and K-12 Education - Early Childhood Education From an Intercultural and Bilingual Perspective ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-5167-6.ch009 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 131-146

Author(s):

Carmen Viejo ◽

Rosario Ortega-Ruiz ◽

Eva M. Romera

Keyword(s):

Creative Thinking ◽

Essential Role ◽

Scientific Development ◽

Human Beings ◽

Observation Study ◽

Original Activity ◽

Children's Play ◽

Children’S Play ◽

Per Se ◽

Theoretical Reflection

Play expresses that human beings use activity as the most natural and adaptive way to be in the world. However, children's play had not been a subject of study and theoretical reflection until the beginning of the last century. Fortunately, the spread of developmental and educational psychology has been little by little sensitive to this extraordinary and original activity and the observation, study, and analysis of play have advanced a lot; the scientific development on play advances through the creation of very interesting theories based on the psychodevelopmental nature of play. In addition, in the last decades, an important number of authors stand up for a critical look at the general interpretation according to which children's play is just an enjoyable and relaxing activity: an activity of interest, per se, that plays an essential role in children's cognitive development and creative thinking. Both interpretations are considered in this chapter.

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Do Children Need Adult Support During Sociodramatic Play to Develop Executive Functions? Experimental Evidence

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.779023 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Nikolai Veresov ◽

Aleksander Veraksa ◽

Margarita Gavrilova ◽

Vera Sukhikh

Keyword(s):

Executive Functions ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Free Play ◽

Control Group ◽

Learning And Development ◽

Sociodramatic Play ◽

Children's Play ◽

Historical Approach ◽

Study Results ◽

Children’S Play

The cultural-historical approach provides the deep theoretical grounds for the analysis of children’s play. Vygotsky suggested three critical features of play: switching to an imaginary situation, taking on a play role, and acting according to a set of rules defined by the role. Collaboration, finding ideas and materials for creating an imaginary situation, defining play roles, and planning the plot are complex tasks for children. However, the question is, do children need educator’s support during the play to develop their executive functions, and to what extent? This experimental study was aimed at answering this inquiry. The four modes of sociodramatic play were created which differed in the adult intervention, from non-involvement in the play to its entire organization. The play could be child-led (with adult help), adult-led, or free (without any adult intervention); and there was also a control group where the children heard the same stimulus stories as the other groups but then followed them up with a drawing activity instead of a play activity. The study revealed that, firstly, the ways of educator’s involvement in the play differed in their potential in respect to the development of executive functions, and, secondly, this influence was not equal for different components of executive functions. Free play in the experiment was not a beneficial condition for the development of any of the studied components of executive functions, compared to the conditions involving the participation of an adult in the play. Furthermore, the type of adult intervention stimulated the development of various executive functions. The entire organization of the play by the adult had a positive impact of their general development. In contrast, the adult’s assistance in the organization of the children’s play had a positive effect on the development of inhibitory control. The study results can be helpful when considering educational practices within a cultural-historical approach to engaging the potential of play in children’s learning and development around the world.

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