PLAY AND SEFL-REGULATION DEPICTED IN PICTURE BOOKS
Open Access
- Author:
- Su, Min
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 11, 2010
- Committee Members:
- Daniel Dean Hade, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Daniel Dean Hade, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Vivian Yenika Agbaw, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
James Ewald Johnson, Committee Member
Richard Fiene, Committee Member - Keywords:
- picture books
social learning
self-regulation
play - Abstract:
- Today’s emphasis on test scores has relegated children’s literature to a marginalized position in pre-primary and primary schools. Storybooks are losing their historical role in “helping children navigate the intellectual, social, and emotional terrains of childhood (Cooper, 2007, p.315). Play, as children's leading activity (Vygotsky, 1967), is experiencing the same downward trend. This thesis is an attempt to reveal the potential effects of both children’s literature and play on children’s social and emotional development. Specifically, it examines play activities depicted in picture books and analyzes the self-regulatory behaviors of child characters operating during the play process. Forty picture books are selected for this study. They include books depicting children’s relationships with adult family members, with siblings, with adults outside the family, as well as children's relationships with their peers. The theoretical guidance for the study is Vygotsky’s social learning theory and his notion of the psychology of play. The analysis of the books focuses on how they depict play and self-regulation, and how play is related to the development of self-regulation. The findings show that in these picture books, play is depicted as helping children learn self-regulation. Some of the functions are as follows: to some child characters, play is a culturally acceptable way of expressing and releasing feelings; some child characters achieve emotional self-regulation by deriving a sense of autonomy from play activities; play also makes egocentric, dominant children abide by the rules of sharing or mutual respect and motivates submissive, weak children to stand up for themselves. In addition, play is a training ground where children can safely make and learn to correct their mistakes. The role of other people (family members, other adults, or peers) is also analyzed as a possible factor in children's mastery of self-regulation. The findings show that other people may serve as the more knowledgeable others who guide children to achieve self-regulation; they may also simply be playmates who monitor the child characters’ behaviors. Based on the findings, this study advocates using selected picture books in classrooms to help children learn self-regulation.