ABSTRACT
The guidebook opens with an overview of the Developmental Play Assessment – Professional (DPA-P). It includes a summary of Project Play, which is the research project that formed the foundation of the DPA-P. The chapter includes our definition of play, the background literature on play, the organization of this guidebook, and the rationale for why such an assessment is needed.
The importance of play in young children’s lives cannot be overstated. In their play with toys, children develop knowledge about objects, people, and events, which contributes to multiple aspects of development. We developed the DPA-P to help practitioners and family members to understand play, how to evaluate play, and how to use play for different purposes.
The DPA-P is unique in its systematic evaluation of children’s progress in play, based on a strong empirical foundation conducted by the authors of this assessment. Our observations of the naturally occurring play activities of 492 children, developing typically and with delays, are closely linked with detailed descriptions and analyses to generate this assessment. We emphasize that evaluation is based on naturally occurring play behaviors as opposed to behaviors elicited in contrived contexts. Finally, this assessment is presented with a companion online training program that provides comprehensive training in the use of the DPA-P.
