Structured vs. Unstructured Play Training with Economically Disadvantaged Preschoolers

Abstract

One-hundred-sixteen white South African preschoolers from severely economically disadvantaged circumstances were divided into four groups: a structured play training intervention group, an unstructured play training intervention group, and attention control group, and a nonintervention control group with twenty-six, twenty-eight, fourteen, and twenty-five children respectively, available for posttraining assessment. Prior to intervention, assessments of play, divergent thinking skills, story-telling ability, verbal and nonverbal IQ and locus of control were made. Intervention according to the groups was carried out and the assessments were repeated a month after completion of training. Analyses of covariance revealed significant increases for both forms of play training over both control groups for all measures except nonverbal IQ and aggression. There was no differential advantage found between the type of intervention used. Neither was imaginative predisposition found to be a factor related to increases in imaginative play. It was concluded that both the question of structure and imaginative predisposition in relation to play training would be better examined in a less extremely disadvantaged group.