Title I funded preschools as a developmental context for children's play and verbal behaviors

This study examined changes across the school year in the play and verbal b ehavior during center based activities of 283 children in 22 public school preschool classrooms, funded through Title I. Using a time sampling method, observations of children in classroom settings were conducted twice during the preschool year. Repeated measures multivariate analyses of variance re vealed that: (1) children were involved most in parallel play activities, a nd the amount of parallel play increased across the year; and (2) associati ve and cooperative play decreased. This pattern of behavioral change was pr esent in 15 of the 22 classrooms. Conditional probability analyses indicate d that associative play was an important context for verbalizations directe d to both teachers and peers. At the time of each observation children play ed and talked with their peers most. We obtained one interaction effect bet ween gender and time-the amount of talk from girls to teachers increased ov er the school year, whereas boys talked less to teachers over time. Classro oms were staffed by a certified teacher and an assistant and uniformly rate d quite high on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale. This research demonstrates that public school preschools are funded and staffed appropri ately, but that more attention could be paid to facilitating play and verba l interactions that might be important for later school success. (C) 2001 E lsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.