A description of play level and language use of three-, four-, and five-year-old children

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between language use and play level of three-, four-, and five-year-old middle socio-economic status children.The subjects were sixteen children who attended preschool programs at a midwestern university. The sixteen subjects were randomly selected from a population of fifty-five children.There were three age groups with approximately one-third of the subjects in each group. Half of the subjects were girls and half of the subjects were boys.It was estimated seventy-five percent of the subjects had above average verbal ability, nineteen percent of the subjects had average verbal ability, and six percent of the subjects had below average verbal ability.The socio-economic status of the subjects was determined through classification of parents' occupations.The Play Observation Instrument (POI), and the Language Observation Instrument (LOI) were developed by the researcher. The POI included four levels of play developed by Smilansky: functional, constructive, dramatic, and socio-dramatic. Fifty play observations were recorded on the POI. The LOI included seven categories of language use developed by Tough: self-maintaining, directing, reporting, logical reasoning, predicting, projecting, and imagining. Fifty utterances were recorded on the LOI during play.The data were analyzed for all subjects, for age groups, and by sex. Further, the data on the LOI were analyzed for language use in play situations. Narrative data were also presented.The subjects engaged in constructive, dramatic, or socio-dramatic play during the free choice play periods observed. Levels of play were not highly related to age. Boys engaged in constructive and dramatic play most often, and girls engaged in socio-dramatic play most often.The subjects used imagining language more than other language during the free choice play periods observed. Imagining language was used most often for reporting, directing, and logical reasoning. No clear sex differences existed for language use.The house, climber, and block situations elicited the most language. Most frequently occurring language uses in these situations were imagining, directing, and reporting.Imagining language during socio-dramatic play was the most frequently occurring relationship between language use and play level. Imagining language during dramatic play-was next most often occurring, and third most often occurring was reporting language during constructive play or directing language during socio-dramatic play.Thesis (D. Ed.