Product Description: A game designer considers the experience of play, why games have rules, and the relationship of play and narrative. The impulse toward play is very ancient, not only pre-cultural but pre-human; zoologists have identified play behaviors in turtles and in chimpanzees...read more

This classic study still provides one of the most acute descriptions available of an often misunderstood subculture: that of fantasy role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Gary Alan Fine immerses himself in several different gaming systems, offering insightful details on the nature of the games and the patterns of interaction among players—as well as their reasons for playing.

Every child knows what it means to play, but the rest of us can merely speculate. Is it a kind of adaptation, teaching us skills, inducting us into certain communities? Is it power, pursued in games of prowess? Fate, deployed in games of chance? Daydreaming, enacted in art? Or is it just frivolity? Brian Sutton-Smith, a leading proponent of play theory, considers each possibility as it has been proposed, elaborated, and debated in disciplines from biology, psychology, and education to metaphysics, mathematics, and sociology. Sutton-Smith focuses on play theories rooted in seven distinct "rhetorics"--the ancient discourses of Fate, Power, Communal Identity, and Frivolity and the modern discourses of Progress, the Imaginary, and the Self. In a sweeping analysis that moves from the question of play in child development to the implications of play for the Western work ethic, he explores the values, historical sources, and interests that have dictated the terms and forms of play put forth in each discourse's "objective" theory. This work reveals more distinctions and disjunctions than affinities, with one striking exception: however different their descriptions and interpretations of play, each rhetoric reveals a quirkiness, redundancy, and flexibility. In light of this, Sutton-Smith suggests that play might provide a model of the variability that allows for "natural" selection. As a form of mental feedback, play might nullify the rigidity that sets in after successful adaption, thus reinforcing animal and human variability. Further, he shows how these discourses, despite their differences, might offer the components for a new social science of play. (view table of contents)

Product Description: A practical handbook in the science and art of play. At every step of the way, the book gives the underpinning for the practice of play in its many various applications.

Product Description: ed., 1997, Taylor and Francis (Brunner/Mazel). Austin, TX. Presents a systematic method for developing skills in improvisational play, and discusses the benefits and psychodynamics. For psychology professionals as well as those in education and theater arts...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Der ärztliche Abrechnungsbetrug beschäftigt den Medizin- und Strafrechtler gleichermaßen und regelmäßig, ohne dass es bisher zu diesem Problemfeld ein zusammenfassendes Praktikerhandbuch gab. Das Werk bietet dem Praktiker die Möglichkeit, sich schnell und gezielt über die relevanten Rechtsgebiete und die maßgeblichen materiell- und prozessrechtlichen Probleme zu informieren...read more

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A renowned child psychiatrist explores why play, so essential to the healthy development of children, is also very important to adults, helping them clear their minds, relax, and experience creative healing. Reprint. (view table of contents)

Product Description: A fresh and provocative approach to the ongoing nature/nurture, How shall we shape the playspace? debate, this persuasive and controversial book illustrates and analyzes, in colorful detail, children's developing perceptions of their own-and the other sex's-gender identity...read more

This newly designed, typeset, and updated edition of Donald Bogle’s classic study and celebration of America’s “dark divas” now takes readers up to the present. Originally published in 1980, Brown Sugar was also the basis for the four-hour, four-part, documentary that appeared on PBS as well as on German Education Television, all also written by Bogle. Lavishly illustrated, Brown Sugar is a pioneering book.

Product Description: As a classic work in child drama, this book may add a considerable amount of information to the field of educational child drama.'- Newsletter of the Association for the Study of Play'No-one could read this book without being fascinated by [the author's] ability to draw a precise artistry from others...read more

Drawing on the results of field studies, Childhood's Domain looks at the ways in which children use the urban environment for play and learning. It is a look at the world through children's eyes: how they perceive their surroundings, how they claim territory as their own, and how the physical environment contributes to their development and learning. The book concludes with policy recommendations for urban planners, designers, and decision-makers.

Product Description: As they play, children do more than imagine--they also invent life-long approaches to thinking, feeling, and relating to other people. For nearly a century, clinical psychologists have been concerned with the content and interpersonal meaning of play...read more

Product Description: Imaginative play is more vital for a child's future than many parents and educators realize. The more they are allowed to be absorbed in their play, the more fully and effectively they will later take their place in the community of adults...read more

All children play. But many people don't know the importance of play and its relationship to child development. This book offers important research on the topic of play, stressing its significant role in children's lives. This book offers a comprehensive look at children's play from birth to adolescence. Stressing the developmental and psychological importance of play, it discusses the relationship of play to the physical, social, intellectual and emotional growth of the child. Increased attention is paid to educational issues in this edition, and numerous vignettes are included throughout the book to illustrate the value of play. Topics include gender differences in play, intellectual development and play, and play in special populations, amongst others. Early childhood educators and administrators, psychologists, social workers, and university professors.

Product Description: First Published in 1986. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

From the ages of five to twelve, the middle years of childhood, young people explore their surroundings and find or construct private spaces. In these secret places, children develop and control environments of their own and enjoy freedom from the rules of the adult world. Children's Special Places enters these hidden worlds, reveals their importance to children's development and emotional health, and shows educators, parents, and other adults how they can foster a bond between young people and nature that is important to maturation. (view table of contents)

Product Description: This is one of those rare reference books that teachers and students alike find entertaining and useful. Judy Sierra and Robert Kaminski, renowned storytellers and folklorists, describe popular games from 137 countries and cultures, including over 20 games from Native American groups...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Book by Kelly-Byrne, Diana

Traces the development of a three-year-old nursery school student, looks at how young children use fantasy play to help make sense of the world, and describes interactions between three- and four-year-olds