Poster #34 - Parents’ and children’s questions: Asking about geometric shapes

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

While we know that preschoolers use questions to acquire knowledge about physical domains such as animals (Grief et al. 2006; Chouinard et al. 2007), tools (Grief et al. 2006), and causality (Callanan & Oakes, 1992), little research has investigated how preschoolers use questions to acquire information about non-causal, nominal kinds, such as shapes. Children’s questions can help direct their learning, allowing them to gain information they prioritize as relevant and interesting. Although children may be exposed to shapes from an early age, they are unlikely to encounter unusual, varied exemplars (e.g., an isosceles triangle) in educational materials and continue to struggle with identifying the defining features of shapes through elementary school (Resnick et al. 2016; Satlow & Newcombe, 1998). Children’s shape knowledge is a crucial part of early learning, with implications for later success in academic areas such as mathematics (Levine et al. 2012; Mix & Cheng, 2012). Play with parents is surely one way children learn about shapes. However, given the increase in screen media use in homes, we studied whether dyads are as engaged and curious about shapes when interacting with digital modalities compared to their physical counterparts.
We addressed these topics by comparing 60 parent-child dyads (child age M = 35.8 months; SD = 1.2; females = 30) for 5 minutes in 3 conditions of naturalistic play: play with standard wooden shape toys, play with alternate wooden shape toys, and play with a tablet app that presents a similar variety of standard shapes (Figure 1).
Results showed that children asked fewer information-seeking questions (questions probing for facts or explanations) in the tablet condition than the standard and alternate conditions, X2(2) = 14.40, p = .001, and marginally more information-seeking questions when playing with alternate shape toys than standard shape toys (p = .054). Children asked marginally more unprompted questions (Table 1) in the alternate condition compared to the standard condition, U = 182.00, z = 1.75, p = .09.
Parents similarly asked fewer information-seeking questions in the tablet condition than the standard and alternate conditions, X2(2) = 14.40, p = .001. Parents asked more child-led questions in the standard and alternate conditions compared to the tablet condition, X2 (2) = 12.21, p = .002.
When considering the topics of questions asked, parents who asked a higher proportion of questions about shape names had children who also asked a higher proportion of questions about shape names, rs= .40, p = .02. Parents asked more questions about shape names (X2(2) = 15.23, p= .000) and about shape comparisons (X2(2) = 13.79, p= .001) in the standard and alternate conditions than the tablet condition.
Results suggest that playing with physical shapes, rather than viewing electronic shapes, may be beneficial to promoting children’s question-asking behaviors about shapes. Focusing on more varied shape exemplars may encourage children’s engagement and question-asking behavior, which can help them monitor and direct their learning (Chin & Osborne, 2008). Future research is needed to see how question-asking about shapes and other abstract domains develops over time.

Authors

• Caroline Morano, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• Dave Neale, Cambridge University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brian N. Verdine, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Univ of DE
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University
  Non-Presenting Author