ABSTRACT
This chapter describes in detail how to use the coding system to evaluate a sample of children’s play activities. It begins with a description of the coding sheets, which are organized according to the four groups of toys followed by a summary sheet, and it includes rationales for the structure of the coding sheets. This chapter discusses the procedures for scoring play activities and provides recommendations on how to use the coding sheets to get the most accurate evaluation of children’s play activities. We provide specifications on (a) the placement of the categories according to the two-letter codes; (b) how counts of play activities are organized into the 14 play categories; and (c) how the activities are summarized across the four toy sets. Also included are details on how the categories are evaluated in terms of mastery, emergence, and absence. We offer several examples of how the play activities are scored. We also include procedures for how to modify the coding sheets if you use your own toy sets or if you need to revise them in some way.
