The Impact of Toy Type on Interaction Tamara Stein Program Specialist, The Hanen Centre topics: animals, shapes and colours: Have you noticed the latest trend in dining out with children? Lately, when I’ve been out to eat, I’ve observed many children with tablets at the dinner table A friend of mine who has a two-year-old explained this to me, saying, “The only way I can get Charlie through a meal out is by letting him watch Thomas the Tank Engine.” While distracting children with electronic devices can avoid some negative behaviors, it can also impact the amount of positive, high quality, interactions that are essential to children’s early learning New research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association – Pediatrics, shows that the type of toy a parent plays with their child has a significant impact on the interaction that occurs Anna V Sosa, a professor at Northern Arizona University, compared the amount and type of interaction that occurred in three different situations: during traditional toy play, book reading, and playing with electronic toys The results have implications for our work with parents Traditional toys: a farm animal puzzle, a shape-sorter, and rubber blocks Electronic toys that were marketed as being “educational”: a baby laptop, a talking farm, and a baby cell phone Board books: two about animals, two about shapes, and one with a colour theme The parents were instructed to play with their children twice a day for 15 minutes, for three consecutive days, giving the dyads an opportunity to play with each toy set twice The order of which sets of toys they played with was randomized The play sessions were recorded using LENA (Language Environment Analysis) software Each play session was transcribed and coded looking at the following five outcome measures: Study Design 26 parent-infant dyads took part in the study All of the children were 10-16 months of age Each dyad was provided with three sets of toys that were chosen based on their ability to garner speech about specific The number of words produced by the adults during the play session The number of content-specific words produced by the parents That is the number of words produced by the adults that were either about animals, shapes, or colours The number of speech-like child vocalizations The number of conversational turns, which was measured as an utterance by either the parent or infant that occurred within seconds of an utterance made by the other conversational partner Number of parent responses per minute which were coded as the utterances made by the adults that were direct responses to what the child had just vocalized Poll: When you think the parents were most responsive to their children? a during play with electronic toys b during traditional toy play c during shared book reading d b & c e a & b (answer is b and c) Results The researchers compared the five outcome measures in the three types of toy play During play with electronic toys, there were fewer adult words, content-specific vocabulary, conversational turns, and parental responses compared to either traditional toy play or book reading There were also fewer speech-like vocalizations during electronic toy play than during book reading When comparing parental behaviors during traditional toy play and book reading, parents used fewer words and fewer content-specific words during toy play than they did when reading books The following table displays the average measures of each outcome over the three different play types: Outcome Activity Measure (Mean/Minute) Electronic Traditional Books toys Toys Adult words 39.62 55.56 66.89 Content specific words 1.89 4.09 6.96 Child vocalizations 2.9 3.74 3.91 Conversational turns 1.64 2.49 2.73 Responses 1.31 2.09 2.18 Clinical Implications The results of this study give us lots to think about in relation to our work with parents Parents should know about the impact of each type of toy on their interaction with their child and what this means for their child’s language learning opportunities Parents need to know that while their children might enjoy engaging with electronic toys, these types of toys can discourage adult-child interactions Sosa hypothesizes that this is because “parents tend to let the toys the talking for them when their child is interacting with electronic toys” (Sosa, 2015) There is much hype surrounding electronic toys and media geared at very young children that are marketed as learning tools However, this study adds to a body of evidence that indicates that children’s learning occurs when it is mediated by social interactions (e.g Roseberry, Hirsh-Pasek, and Golinkoff, 2014) When parents are looking for tools to enhance their children’s language and learning, it is essential to remind them that what matters more than the toy or material, is the actual interaction that is occurring Explain to parents why book reading should start early While this is something that we, as clinicians are aware of, this study highlights the benefits of reading with infants – it was in this condition that parents talked the most, and where the babies in the study produced the most language-like vocalizations This clearly indicates that it is an excellent context for taking turns and having a conversation When very young children are exposed to books, they pay attention to the rhythm of the written words Book reading encourages language learning and it prepares children to read on their own later on (Dickinson, Griffith, Michnick Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, 2012) Conclusion This study adds to our knowledge of how electronics can negatively affect children’s ability to learn from everyday interactions and gives us some concrete information to share with parents The bottom line is: if a child is more focused on a toy than on his or her conversational partner, there will be fewer opportunities for interaction and language learning References Dickinson, D, Griffith, J.A, Golinkoff, R.M, & Hirsh-Pasek, K (2012) How Reading Books Fosters Language Development around the World Child Development Research, 2012 Goleman, D (2006) Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships New York: Random House Roseberry, S, Hirsh-Pasek, K, & Golinkoff, R.M (2014) Skype me! Socially contingent interactions help toddlers learn language Child Development, 85(3), 956-970 Sosa, A.V (2015) Association of the Type of Toy Used During Play With the Quantity and Quality of Parent-Infant Communication JAMA Pediatrics, 170(2), 132-138