1. Curriculum Practices
1.1. Play as a developmental Domain
1.1.1. Stages of Play (Piaget)
1.1.2. Social Learning (Vygotsky)
1.1.3. Stages of Social Emotional Development (Erickson)
1.1.4. Play deprivation
1.2. Play as an activity to facilitate developmental goals
1.2.1. Physical development
1.2.2. Cognitive development
1.2.3. Communication development
1.2.4. Social-emotional development
1.2.5. Adaptive development
1.3. Types of Play Based Learning
1.3.1. Open-ended Play
1.3.2. Modeled Play
1.3.3. Purposeful Play
1.3.3.1. "Project Approach
2. Public Policy
2.1. NAEYC Policy Statement 2009
2.1.1. "high-level dramatic play"
2.1.2. "sustained high-level play"
2.1.3. "embedding significant learning in play"
2.2. NCLB
2.2.1. Pressure to focus on direct instruction and practice of pre-academic content.
2.2.2. Conflicting definitions of school readiness: Academic Preparation vs. Social-Emotional Competency
3. Research
3.1. School readiness
3.2. Self-regulation
3.3. Literacy Development
3.4. Play Deprivation
4. Theoretical Perspectives
4.1. Post-Develpmental
4.1.1. Post-structural
4.1.2. Cultural-historical
4.1.3. Feminist
4.1.4. Post-modern
4.2. Major Theorists
4.2.1. Froebel: Began "kindergartens" and concept of "self-directed" play.
4.2.2. Dewey: "Child-centered" play and experiental learning
4.2.3. Piaget: "Developmental stages" of play
4.2.4. Montessori: “the child’s work"
4.2.5. Vygotsky: “an adaptive mechanism promoting cognitive growth”
4.2.6. Erickson: 'Ego, Autonomy and Initiative"