While much time has been spent deliberating about the definition of play, little emphasis has been placed on what children themselves perceive as play. The aim of the present study was to examine social context as a cue for children's perceptions of play and learning. Ninety-two children aged between four and six years (mean four years nine months) participated in the study and completed the Activity Apperception Story Procedure. Children were asked to sort photographic stimuli into those they believed depicted play/not play and learning/not learning. Each of the stimuli were identified by independent raters as containing one of the following social cues; teacher absence (solitary activity, parallel activity or cooperative activity) or teacher presence (teacher involved activity or teacher directed activity). Findings revealed that children associated teacher absence with play. More specifically, children made links between play and the presence of peers (parallel and cooperative activity). Findings are discussed in relation to play in the early years curriculum, differences in children's early educational experiences and the importance of understanding children's perceptions of play.

This preliminary study was aimed at investigating and assessing the reliability of criteria generated by participants themselves to categorize children's play. 12 participants who were experienced in observing children's play, were shown 8 video excerpts of children's play and asked questions to elicit (a) the criteria they used to categorize play, and (b) the features of each play episode that were salient to the participants. Results showed that participants categorized play according to a mixture of Behavioral (Positive Affect; Nonliterality; Unrestrained/Unrestricted); Motivational (Practice; Communication and Cooperation) and Contextual (Presence of toys and props) criteria. These criteria were mostly comparable with existing criteria used to categorize play. Results are discussed in terms of the multidimensional nature of children's play and its characteristic and reliably identifiable features.

No abstract

With the recent exponential increase in Internet use, there are concerns about obstacles to gaining access to this potentially beneficial technology. To understand the psychological factors that might be offering barriers to Internet use, the present study considered age, attitudes towards computers, gender, education and social isolation as potential predictors of Internet usage. A sample of 158 adults completed questionnaires about computer anxiety, loneliness and Internet use. Time spent in activities associated with entertainment, communication, information searches and commerce, and overall time spent on the Internet were analysed using multiple regression. It was difficult to predict overall Internet use, but possible to predict specific categories of use. Better-educated participants were more likely to use the Internet for communication. Men, the young, and the lonely used the Internet more for entertainment. Those with lower computer anxiety used the Internet for information searches, and men were more likely than women to use the Internet for commercial purposes. It is suggested that computer anxiety and education may constrain the use of specific applications but Internet use otherwise follows pre-existing tendencies or interests.

It has often been proposed that young (three to six years old) children's television viewing habits contribute to early-onset obesity. Three explanations that link television viewing patterns of young children with the development of obesity are considered. First, television viewing displaces time available for physical activity, reduces energy expenditure relative to energy intake and leads to obesity. Second, the cognitive immaturity of young children increases their susceptibility to persuasive intent of advertisements for foods of poor nutritional quality. Such food advertisements are broadcast often during children's television programmes and lead to unhealthy food preferences, and dietary imbalances associated with obesity. Third, activity displacement combined with susceptibility to persuasive intent of televised food advertisements predispose young children to early-onset obesity. Research evidence in support of each explanation is questionable, because of conceptual and methodological shortfalls in existing research. How future research might address shortfalls is considered.