Natural Variability in Parent-Child Puzzle Play at Home

Abstract

Here, we observed 3- to 4-year-old children (N=31) and their parents playing with puzzles at home during a zoom session to provide insight into the variability of the kinds of puzzles children have in their home, and the variability in how children and their parents play with spatial toys. We observed a large amount of variability in both children and parents’ behaviors, and in the puzzles they selected. Further, we found relations between parents’ and children’s behaviors. For example, parents provided more scaffolding behaviors for younger children and parents’ persistence-focused language was related to more child attempts after failure. Altogether, the present work shows how using methods of observing children at a distance, we can gain insight into the environment in which they are developing. The results are discussed in terms of how variability in spatial toys and spatial play during naturalistic interactions can help us contextualize the conclusions we draw from lab-based studies.

Online testing in developmental science: A guide to design and implementation

“…Moreover, reading books digitally or on paper has previously, in an exploratory labstudy, been shown to yield similar results (Fisch et al, 2002). Another option is to ask caregivers to use an item they already have (e.g., a puzzle; Pochinki et al, 2021) or can easily obtain. When very specific toys or other objects that are not part of a standard household are required, researchers may have to consider shipping them, which requires extra time and effort and comes with additional costs.…”

“…Many researchers of caregiver-child interaction studies opt for synchronous data collection (e.g., Pochinki et al, 2021;Segal & Moulson, 2021;Shin et al, 2021;Woon et al, 2021), although these types of studies have been carried out asynchronously too (e.g., Addyman & Scott, 2020;Rhodes et al, 2020). Some measures can be coded from a webcam or audio recording.…”

Early environments and exploration in the preschool years

“…Children learn by exploring the world. Past research has found a great deal of variation in how parents play with their children [ 1 ], and that the degree and quality of instruction provided by adults can shape the ways in which children subsequently explore [ 2 – 5 ]. Such directed play (i.e., independent exploratory play following a single piece of information provided by an adult) is different from other kinds of exploratory learning that have been the focus of past work.…”

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“…Children learn by exploring the world. Past research has found a great deal of variation in how parents play with their children [1], and that the degree and quality of instruction provided by adults can shape the ways in which children subsequently explore [2][3][4][5]. Such directed play (i.e., independent exploratory play following a single piece of information provided by an adult) is different from other kinds of exploratory learning that have been the focus of past work.…”