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Abstract
There is a dearth of research regarding young children with high intellectual abilities, particularly research involving the direct observation of children in naturalistic settings. The current study examines 2 years of observations of young children (aged 37-71 months; n = 34) at an early childhood facility. The children were observed during the substantial periods of the day in which they were engaged in play at self-selected learning centers. The play was coded on levels of cognitive (non-play, functional, dramatic, constructive, and games with rules) and social (solitary, parallel, associative, and cooperative) play. Overall, the high ability children (n = 19) spent more time in functional, dramatic, and solitary play behaviors than typical children (n = 15). The high ability children also spent more time in literacy-based (library and writing) and arts-based (art and music) centers than the typical children. These findings indicate that the high ability children in this study were more likely to select centers independent of their peers.
Keywords play, gifted education, early childhood
References
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