Play Books

Children at Play: Using Waldorf Principles to Foster Childhood Development

Heidi Britz-Crecelius

Amazon Price: $9.95 List Price: $9.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Inner Traditions Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $5.00

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Play
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Child Psychology -> Development
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Developmental Psychology

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

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.

Drawing on her experiences as a mother and as a proponent of Rudolf Steiner's Waldorf system of education, author Heidi Britz-Crecelius emphasizes the different qualities of play that may extend through more than one phase of childhood. She focuses on natural materials and recommends specific games, toys, and art supplies that further the mobility of the mind and the powers of expression without the burden that premature schooling can place on children.

In Children at Play, the author also reminds us that the human being, though bound by laws of space and time and tied to the earth, stems from eternity and belongs to a much larger community; the child's innermost being is directly related to the all-embracing world of spirit.

Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Amazon Price: $36.00 List Price: $45.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Jossey-Bass Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $22.33

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> Emotions
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

When good observations meet bad metaphors. 2 out of 5 stars.
54 of 92 people found this review helpful.

One of the major conceits in the history of psychology is that the act of paying attention can be a portal to amazing or magical things. Pay attention to a swinging watch and you become hypnotized, focus on your belly button or a mantra and you enter a blissful meditative state, and concentrate real hard while tapping your shoes together and you just may get to Kansas. The latest wonderful mind state that occurs thanks to paying attention is 'flow'. Upon interviewing a few thousand people as they went about their ordinary lives, Dr. C. discovered that many of them reported a state of pleasure or even ecstasy when they engaged in demanding tasks that challenged them to the limits of their capabilities. The fact that mountain climbers, artists, doctors, etc. reported some real good feelings while having to rapidly shift their attention to stay on a ledge, keep inspiration, or keep a patient alive seemed to indicate once again that attention, if focused just right, can be a portal to some mighty good things. In this his first book on the topic of flow, Dr. C. waxes poetic about how flow represents a heightened sense of self, undreamed level of consciousness and so on, without grounding any of it to actual neural processes. Dr. C.'s house of metaphorical cards however collapses if attention was not the antecedent for flow, but the stuff of flow itself. The critical question that Dr. C. studiously avoids is whether attention is in itself a pleasurable or hedonic thing. Modern research in neuropsychology answers the question in the affirmative, as it is well known that when attention rapidly shifts between a host of important precepts, the neuromodulator dopamine is released that keeps us rooted, alert, promotes efficiency in thinking, and feels good to boot. Dr. C. does not concern himself to explore any of these findings, preferring instead to view attention as a portal to all those good metaphysical feelings, and not a source of those good feelings themselves. But again, if Dr. C. actually was intent on finding out what flow actually is, instead of reveling in its poetry, his book would be shorter by two thirds, and lose its representation as a model for vacuous New Age thinking, which in toto represents the intellectual con of the 20th century.

Editorial Review:

Now in a special 25th anniversary edition and filled with brilliant wisdom and insights, Beyond Boredom and Anxiety offers a timeless introduction to the concept of flow and the scientific basis behind it-all through the work of one of the field's great scientists, Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi. Through real-life examples, discover how enjoyable activities provide a common experience-a satisfying, often exhilarating, feeling of creative accomplishment and heightened functioning-and under what conditions 'serious' work can also provide this intrinsic enjoyment.

Playing by Heart: The Vision and Practice of Belonging

O. Fred Donaldson PH.D.

List Price: $12.95 By: Health Communications Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $4.90

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

beautiful and inspiring 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is a wonderful teacher. It tells the story of how Fred discovered a universal language of play and how he shares it with the world. Get it. Read it. I have done and his method of Original Play and it has been influential in my life. A keystone to how I live my life.
Peace

Not what you expect 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

By "play," most of us think of games or sports--what Fred Donaldson calls "contest behavior." This is a book exploring non-contest behavior, which is practiced naturally by wild animals and children under 3, but which most of us have largely lost. Fred's discovery that reengaging in non-contest behavior is a universal language and a way of transforming relationship is of great power. I have taken one "Playshop" with Fred, and wish he were more available. This book is of great value in opening our eyes to the possibility of non-competitive relationship. I highly recommend it.

Mollie Is Three: Growing Up in School

Vivian Gussin Paley

Amazon Price: $9.35 List Price: $11.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University Of Chicago Press Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $0.70

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Philosophy & Social Aspects

Editorial Review:

"No adult can escape the adult perspective; but simply recognizing its inevitable limitations in a children's world enables a few gifted educators to accept the existence and vilify of whole kindergartens full of different perspectives. One such person is Vivian Gussin Paley. . . . Her books. . .should be required reading wherever children are growing."—New York Times Book Review

"With a delightful, almost magical touch, Paley shares her observations and insights about three-year-olds. The use of a tape recorder in the classroom gives her a second chance to hear students' thoughts from the doll corner to the playground, and to reflect on the ways in which young children make sense of the experience of school. . . . Paley lets the children speak for themselves, and through their words we reenter the world of the child in all its fantasy and inventiveness."—Harvard Educational Review

"Paley's vivid and accurate descriptions depict both spontaneous and recurring incidents and outline increasingly complex interactions among the children. Included in the narrative are questions or ideas to challenge the reader to gain more insight and understanding into the motives and conceptualizations of Mollie and other children."—Karen L. Peterson, Young Children

Deep Play

Diane Ackerman

List Price: $24.95 By: Random House Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $0.90

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Deep play" is what helps humans survive, grow, and spiritually transcend, according to acclaimed poet and author Diane Ackerman. Children are of course drawn to deep play--those activities that catapult them into an altered state of consciousness, where all their senses are engaged and for that moment life is timeless and fully absorbing. But few adults are conscious of how this form of deep play continues throughout adulthood.

For athletes, deep play could embody the extreme and spiritually rewarding feats of mountain climbing or scuba diving, explains Ackerman. For lovers, it could be the compelling dance of courtship. Some find the act of making soup from scratch a form of deep play. For Ackerman, deep play has meant swimming with dolphins, writing poetry, piloting planes, and making sojourns to remote locations and sacred places. "Swept up by the deeper states of play, one feels balanced, creative, focused," explains Ackerman. "Deep play is a fascinating hallmark of being human; it reveals our need to seek a special brand of transcendence, with a passion that makes thrill-seeking explicable, creativity possible, and religion inevitable."

Ackerman's writing and metaphors are most engaging when she uses her fascinating life experiences to characterize how adults can engage in the rapture and ecstasy of deep play. This is a fascinating new territory of discussion, which could forever alter your approach to play in daily life. --Gail Hudson

Mind at Play: The Psychology of Video Games

Geoffrey R. Loftus, Elizabeth F. Loftus

List Price: $14.95 By: Basic Books Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $3.94

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Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Video & Electronic Games
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

The first half is interesting and provocative but ... 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Among other available books about video games, the most important and unique contribution of this book is the attempt to discuss the video game phenomenon from a psychological perspective. For example, the theory of partial reinforcement is used to explain why people are hooked and addicted to the various video games. The author ascribed the cause to the rewarding but unpredictable feedback of a game, which gives the players a feeling of "almost getting there" and the victory is likely to be "right around the corner". This leads to the highest motivation and quitting the games becomes difficult. This book as a whole starts with similar arguments and explanations like this, which is interesting and illuminating. But, the latter half of the book is a bit irrelevant and disappointing, especially the last chapter about basic concepts of computer such as what are memory, input / output and CPU. This should no longer be able to interest the readers of today. Though it is understandable that there are actually not many serious researches and findings done about video games, the author seems to include this part in order to have enough to make up a book. Altogether, this book is a summary of psychological theories related to video games, and I think this book is a good background reading for studying video games.

The Play Therapy Primer

Kevin J. O'Connor

Amazon Price: $60.00 List Price: $75.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $23.92

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> Compulsive Behavior

Editorial Review:

The clinically indispensable guide to using play in therapy, revised and updated.
Featuring new approaches developed since the publication of the successful first edition, The Play Therapy Primer, Second Edition offers health care professionals and students a balance of fundamentals, theory, and practical techniques for using play in therapy. Providing an ecosystemic perspective, the book defines distinctive approaches to the practice of play therapy that readers can integrate into a personalized and internally consistent theory and practice of their own. This timely resource also includes increased coverage of developmental issues and a new chapter discussing diversity issues with case examples.

Presenting stimulating and useful information for therapists at all levels of training, The Play Therapy Primer covers:
* A history of play therapy
* The major theories of play therapy in use today
* Ecosystemic Play Therapy theory and practice
* A conceptual framework for the practice of individual play therapy
* The course of individual play therapy
* Structured group play therapy
* Session-by-session treatment plans

Play Interactions: The Role of Toys and Parental Involvement in Children's Development (Johnson and Johnson Pediatric Round Table Series)

Catherine Caldwell Brown

List Price: $10.00 By: Johnson & Johnson Baby Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $0.01

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The Doll Book: Soft Dolls and Creative Free Play

Karin Neushutz

List Price: $8.95 By: Larson Pubn Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $6.54

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Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Crafts & Hobbies -> Toymaking

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Good in bits, tiring in others 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

First off, this book is actually two short ones. The first section deals with a Swedish child psychologist's views on childhood and play. It was written in the early 80s, so I can't help hoping that if it were written today, some of her views might not be so narrow. It deals with many of the Waldorf school ideas of play and simplicity, which is cool, but the author verges on self-righteous ranting in places.
The second half of the book is a great primer on doll making, specifically the simple Waldorf style. It includes patterns and some step by step drawing which I would love to have seen before I started making my first doll.
I was quite pleased with the easy going style of the second half and just wish that the first section had not been so, hmmm...almost grim and scolding. So, skip the first 100 pages, but rest assured that for a beginner in the Waldorf doll making world, the second 77 pages are worth it. That is if you can find a copy.

Early Years Play.. a Happy Medium for Assessment Pb

Zahirun Sayeed

Amazon Price: $32.53 List Price: $35.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: David Fulton Publish Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $28.46

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Editorial Review:

This text provides a description and analysis of play and its use in helping young children to reach their potential. It is aimed at professionals working with young children with special educational needs and from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The authors have sought to make sense of play from theoretical and practical sources to promote an interactive perspective. Included in the book is the authors' model of Play Based Assessment, a framework that can be used to assess and mediate children's learning and development.