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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Intrinsic and extrinsic influences on play fighting in rats: effects of dominance, partner's playfulness, temperament and neonatal exposure to testosterone propionate.

Play fighting is a frequent activity of juvenile rats and appears to show marked variability amongst individuals in that some rats play a great deal and others very little. This study attempted to identify some of the factors involved in producing this individual variability. The major influence over an individual's frequency of play as a juvenile was found to be the frequency of play by the partner. That is, play appears to be contagious, in that a high playing animal stimulates its partner to play frequently as well. In male juveniles, but seemingly not in female juveniles, the subsequent adult status of one partner as dominant influences the subordinate-to-be to initiate more playful contacts. In addition to these extrinsic influences, however, there appear to be intrinsic factors that influence whether an individual is a high or low playing animal. One intrinsic factor appears to be 'boldness', so that bolder animals tend to initiate more playful contacts. Higher players tend to be more susceptible to the stereotypy-inducing effects of the dopamine agonist, apomorphine, and tend to be more dependent upon the playful activity of the partner to maintain their own high levels of play. Both of these characteristics are consistent with other studies comparing bold and timid rats. Boldness, however, only seems to influence how much play a rat will exhibit, not how much play it is capable of exhibiting. Neonatal testosterone augmentation increases juvenile play fighting but not apomorphine susceptibility, suggesting that a high player need not be a bold animal. The total frequency of play an individual is capable of initiating appears to depend upon perinatal exposure to androgens. Boldness and the playfulness of the partner appear to modulate the expression of this hormonally set value.

Agonistic Behavior↗
PubMed1979

Developmental progression in play behavior of children between nine and thirty months: II: Spontaneous play and language development.

The relationship between play behavior displayed in a structured play situation and language development was studied cross-sectionally in 85 children at eight age--evels between nine and 30 months. There were no correlations between types of play behavior, in particular functional play (appropriate use of objects on the child's own body), representational play (appropriate use of objects on a doll or another person), or symbolic play (substitution of present objects for absent ones) and speech measures such as total number of words and of vocalizations, number of different words and different vocalizations, and number of sentences. Identification of objects upon verbal request was not related to any type of play behavior, but comprehension of verbal requests for functional or representational play was postively correlated with the display of functional or representational play. The children did not respond to verbal requests for functional or representational play unless these types of play behavior were part of their spontaneous play repertoire. Understanding of prepositions seemed to be related to spatial concepts expressed in play behavior, such as container play or arranging chairs around a table and setting the table.

Child Development↗
PubMed1979

Developmental progression in play behavior of children between nine and thirty months. I: Spontaneous play and imitation.

The developmental progression of play behavior was studied cross-sectionally in 85 children at eight age-levels between nine and 30 months. In a structured play situation, three major play patterns were distinguished: (1) exploratory play (at the end of the first year); (2) functional play (beginning of second year); and (3) representational play (after 15 months). Sequential play first occurred at 21 months. Play behavior with spatial characteristics was also observed: relational and container play between nine and 15 months, and understanding of spatial relationships, stacking and grouping between 18 and 24 months. There was a significant relationship between spontaneous and imitative play behavior; the greatest affect was displayed when the demonstrated behaviors matched the child's developmental level of play.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1979

Play diagnosis and play therapy.

Play therapy used in a family psychiatric unit in England is described, together with an evaluation of its treatment value and its usefulness toward a diagnosis. Individual play techniques are explored, and two case histories are given as examples of how the occupational therapist works with the child, the family, and other practitioners.

Child↗
PubMed1979

May Johnny or Janie play the clarinet? The Eastman Study: a report on the orthodontic evaluations of college-level and professional musicians who play brass and woodwind instruments.

It is apparent from the findings in this study that although there are some significant differences in the incidence of certain pertinent oral and facial entities between some wind-instrument musicians and their counterpart controls, among mature persons, there is no reason to categorically prohibit all persons with potential malocclusions from studying music. On the other hand, it could be folly to permit any or all instrument pursuits without an extensive, complete, thorough orthodontic analysis. Each case must be counseled on its own merits. In addition, each orthodontically treated patient must be observed closely in the posttreatment retention phase, which should probably be much longer than usual, with particular attention devoted to prevention of lingual collapse or retroclination of the mandibular anterior teeth.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Play: early and eternal.

A systematic 12-week investigation of development of play behavior was conducted with eight socially reared rhesus monkey infants. A new, basic and primary play form termed self-motion play or peragration was identified and examined. This behavior follows a human model which includes a wide range of pleasurable activities involving motion of the body through space, e.g., rocking, swinging, running, leaping, and water or snow skiing. It can be argued that self-motion play is the initial primate play form and because of its persistence constitutes a reinforcing agent for maintaining many complex patterns and even pastimes. Monkey self-motion play in the present study was divided into five separate patterns in order to compare the relative importance of social and individual peragration play, the role of apparatus and the overall developmental relationships between the different individual and social self-motion play patterns. The data showed that from 90 to 180 days of age self-motion play was independent of other forms of play, that individual self-motion play appeared earlier and with significantly greater increases in frequency than did social self-motion play, and that apparatus was a necessary component for significant increases in social self-motion play. Other findings were that self-motion play existed independent of locomotion and, though initiated by exploration, was separate from it. Therapeutic implications of self-motion play were discussed.

Aging↗
PubMed1978

A study of the play behavior of retarded children.

Piaget, Almy and Peller have pointed to the necessity of play for cognitive development. Earlier, Lehman and Witty, Boyton and Ford, Horne and Philleo. Tilton, Ottinger and Weiner conducted studies on play in cognitively disturbed children. Hetzer and Inhelder show that the retarded child annot utilize his play area because of poor imagination and lack of expressive skills. Many play activities have a perseverating character. They cannot make sufficient use of the possibilities inherent in the toys presented to them. Uncontrolled drives inhibit creative and constructive play. Often, a plan d'attaque for play is lacking. Following on the heels of earlier studies, systematic play observations of 38 retarded children were made using ten observation categories. In Table II the results are shown of the way in which the child uses a toy. The play behavior of the retarded child is predominated by a great need to explore, experiment and move. He hardly has a chance to use toys in a creative way resulting in a play endproduct. The choice of toys is given in Table III. Boys had a particular interest in vehicles and environmental material, girls in dolls. According to expectation, the level of play behavior (Table IV) and the scores on an intelligence test (HAWIK) appeared to positively correlate with each other. This was also true for the correlations between the subtest scores and play behavior, with the exception of similarities and block design. Also, the variation in the exhibited play behavior correlated positively with the measured IQ's. In view of the correlations found, there are indications that imitation play is important for emotional and social behavior. Older study results, which showed a connection between an identification score and imitation play seem to be confirmed in retarded children, too. For the practical situation in child-rearing and education, the study results point to the necessity of bringing the retarded child into contact with as many different toys as possible.

Child↗
PubMed1976

Effects of food ecology on social play: a laboratory simulation.

A laboratory group of 8 squirrel monkeys was exposed to two experimental conditions in which food was made moderately and extremely difficult to obtain, compared with the free access conditions of baseline. Both experiments produced sharp decreased in the frequency of social play within 4 to 6 days. The stronger manipulation produced the more dramatic effect, reducing play to 1% of the baseline level (P less than .001). Neither experiment produced a total absence of play as was observed in a previous field study in southwestern Panama (Baldwin and Baldwin 1973, 1974) which suggests that the field study sampled conditions of even more severe and/or prolonged food deprivation. No pathological or dysfunctional consequences were observed in any of the circumstances where play was reduced to zero or near zero. The question is raised whether certain theories of play have overstated the case for the necessity of play experience in producing normal socialization in primates. Alternative hypotheses are presented concerning the factors that determine the frequency of play and the consequences of play versus no-play for socialization. After both experiments, the frequency of play rose to a level 50% higher than the average baseline levels of play. This "rebound" reached a peak 5 to 6 days after the termination of each experiment; and during the subsequent days the frequency of play declined to more normal levels. A reinforcement theory is presented as a possible explanation of the rebound effect.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

The role of the cortex in play fighting by rats: developmental and evolutionary implications.

Play is a distinctive behavior of young mammals, especially mammals with a well-developed forebrain. For this reason it is thought that there may be a relation between forebrain evolution and highly elaborated play behavior. This study investigated the contribution of the cortex to play behavior by comparing play in control and neonatally decorticated rats (Rattus norvegicus). Play fighting in rats involves the combination of attack by one rat and defense by the recipient, with pinning arising when specific patterns of defense are used. Whether paired with another decorticate or with an intact pairmate, decorticates attacked pairmates as frequently as did intacts, and they were just as likely to defend against playful attacks as were intacts. Where decorticates differed from intacts was on a measure of pinning, in which one rat stands over a supine partner, decorticate rats displayed a reduction of 50% relative to control rats during the juvenile stage in which play is most pronounced (days 25 to 40). Juvenile decorticate rats adopted types of defensive responses which were less likely to result in the pinning configuration. Thus, a reduced pinning frequency reflects an altered pattern of defense, not a reduced level of play fighting. Rather, the decorticate patterns of defense were typical of those defensive responses displayed by adult rats. That is, decorticate juveniles exhibit a precociously mature pattern of playful defense. As intact controls mature, they come to resemble the decorticates in their defensive responses, and hence the difference in pinning frequency between decorticate and intact pairs diminishes. This suggests that the cortex may inhibit the escalation of defense in juveniles and thus promote prolonged ventral-ventral contact during play fighting. The results further suggest that the cortex is involved in the development of adult behavioral skills by facilitating juvenile play.

Aggression↗
PubMed2026

Perspectives on play for young children with disabilities in South Africa: a qualitative study.

PURPOSE: All children have the right to play. Children with disabilities are often excluded from play activities. We aimed to explore caregivers', older community members', and key stakeholders' perceptions and experiences of play as influenced by socio-cultural, institutional, and public policy factors. These insights informed the early stages of intervention development. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In-depth semi-structured interviews (n = 23) were conducted with caregivers of children with disabilities aged 2-5 years, older community members, and key stakeholders who had experience working with children with disabilities. Data were thematically analysed, following a socio-ecological approach. RESULTS: Four themes emerged: (i) making play doable and affordable, (ii) play away the challenges, (iii) playing together or not, and (iv) play opportunities. The results highlighted how intrapersonal and interpersonal factors and experiences shaped perspectives of play and play-based interventions for children with disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings emphasise the importance of a community-informed approach in grounding the early stages of intervention development, which may help to ensure that a future play-based intervention is contextually appropriate.

Humans↗
PubMed1977

Exploration and play with objects in domestic kittens.

The responses of 12 kittens to unfamiliar and familiar objects was tested. Four categories of behavior were measured: exploration, play-exploration, play, and non-manipulatory contact. The results indicated that exploration and play-exploration were used for longer durations with unfamiliar objects and play was used for longer durations with familiar objects. Rank-order correlations between the measures showed that objects explored were not correlated with objects played with or play-explored. Analyses of the rankings revealed that small size and mobility were important object properties of play. The results suggest that exploration involves learning about stimulus properties, play-exploration involves learning about perceptual-motor properties, and play involves learning to coordinate movements with those of moving objects.

Animals↗