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Positive emotional states have been shown to confer resilience to depression and anxiety in humans, but the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects have not yet been elucidated. In laboratory rats, positive emotional states can be measured by 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (hedonic USVs), which are maximally elicited by juvenile rough-and-tumble play behavior. Using a focused microarray […]
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The goal of this study is to inform teachers’ practice by identifying specific language strategies that young children use in their play and suggesting ways that teachers can build on our findings to support students’ language and literacy. Deductive analyses of video-recordings of 5-year old children playing at the sand center revealed that children used […]
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Although signs of empathy have now been well documented in non-human primates, only during the past few years have systematic observations suggested that a primal form of empathy exists in rodents. Thus, the study of empathy in animals has started in earnest. Here we review recent studies indicating that rodents are able to share states […]
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School counselors are often the first professionals to become aware of the mental health problems of young children. Given that play therapy is the most developmentally appropriate approach for elementary school-age children, it is important to understand why some school counselors use play therapy and others do not. The purpose of this study was to […]
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No Abstract; redacted introduction this commentary on a book: In “Emotion and Decision Making Explained” Edmund Rolls shares an exceptionally well-detailed, deeply scholarly work that probes the broad landscape of animal and human emotions, as well as body regulatory processes such as hunger and thirst and sensory affects, especially taste. … It is a must […]
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This study aims to explore the pedagogical potential of outdoor play situations, considering the educational goals established in the Portuguese Pedagogical Guidelines for 0-3-year-old children (ongoing work), namely development of a sense of security and positive self-esteem; development of curiosity and exploratory impetus; and development of social and communication skills. Following a qualitative methodology, during […]
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The purpose of this research is to examine cultural difference in Turkish and American preschoolers’ play, aggression and victimization behaviours. The research has been performed in a nursery school affiliated to a university in one of the big cities of Turkey and in two nursery schools affiliated to a university in one of the Northern […]
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Rough and tumble (R&T) play is assumed to have beneficial effects in developing organisms. To evaluate this idea, brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene expression was evaluated in 32-day-old juvenile rats that were allowed to play for 30 min prior to sacrifice. In situ hybridization for BDNF mRNA revealed that the amygdala and dorsolateral frontal […]
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Negative social experiences during adolescence are central features for several stress-related mental illnesses. Social play fighting behavior in rats peaks during early adolescence and is essential for the final maturation of brain and behavior. Manipulation of the rat adolescent social experience alters many neurobehavioral measurements implicated in anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. In this review, […]
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Digital technologies allow teachers and students to experience new pedagogical approaches leveraging on interactivity and collaboration. Among the available techniques, digital storytelling (DST) has been usually regarded as an activity that can both enrich the teaching practices and foster students’ active behaviour. This paper aims at analysing to what extent a DST platform proposing the […]
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The study of recurring groups of adults involved in common leisure activity is scant. Adult play groups are important to participants, and studying them furthers our understanding of the community-building potential of leisure. In this paper, I seek to rediscover adult play group by outlining five themes. Borrowing from Huizinga, I begin by arguing that […]
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The purpose of this study was to explore children’s play during recess and in physical education (PE) classes from the perspective of Huizinga’s theory of play. Specifically, this study investigated how primary school PE teachers used the concept of play, how it was understood by student participants, and how the participants engaged in the different […]
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play fighting is a common form of play reported among species of mammals, birds, and some other taxa. The competition present in play fighting revolves around gaining some advantage, such as biting a partner without being bitten. The behavior simulated during play fighting need not be restricted to that present in adult serious fighting, but […]
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Kindergarten teachers face the challenge of balancing traditional developmental programming and contemporary academic standards. In classrooms following a play-based learning framework, academic content such as literacy is to be taught within children’s play. However, educators have reported conceptual and practical challenges with integrating play and literacy. Although the educative contexts of direct instruction, teacher-guided play, […]
3 Our submission describes the design, development and evaluation of an intergenerational game prototype called Cosmonauts. The aim of the prototype is to identify design factors for intergenerational games that are easy to learn, feature a simple and intuitive control scheme, and offer a certain amount of depth that keeps players enjoying themselves. In detail, our […]
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First paragraph of commentary: Longstanding controversies on the function and evolution of play have been clarified and partially resolved in Peter Smith’s stimulating paper. My commentary will be limited to a few issues serviced from my own interests in bears and reptiles.
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Paul MacLean’s concept of epistemics – the neuroscientific study of subjective experience – requires animal brain research that can be related to predictions concerning the internal experiences of humans. Especially robust relationships come from studies of the emotional/affective processes that arise from subcortical brain systems shared by all mammals. Recent affective neuroscience research has yielded […]
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Head and foot coordination of juvenile magpies occurs during object or social manipulations beginning at 4 wk after fledging. The pattern supports the hypothesis that play functions as practice in the performance of motor patterns which involve complex skills used in many situations later in life. -from Author
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Play has long been considered as either insignificant or irrelevant to normal behaviour development, or as important in the onset of normal behaviour development. Two fundamental factors that have caused this confusion about play are discussed in this chapter: the tendency for play to be defined as without immediate purpose, and the tendency of utilitarian […]
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Play, especially in its social form, is an enigmatic and multifunctional behavior that is essential for the development and maintenance of a great variety of individual and social competences in many social species. Bonobos are recognized as one of the most playful species and they can be used as a model to evaluate the importance […]
