Poster #160 - Do Mothers or Infants Choose Objects for Play During Everyday Activities at Home?

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Integrative Statement

Object interaction is a frequent infant activity and an important source of learning. What are the objects that infants interact with during everyday play? Who chooses the objects for play—infants or mothers? Does the proportion of infant- or mother-selected objects relate to infants’ time spent with different types of objects?

We video-recorded mothers and their 13-, 18-, and 23-month-old infants for one hour during naturalistic activities in their homes. Mothers were instructed to do whatever they would typically do if the experimenter were not present. The final sample will include 24 infants of each age; to date, we have analyzed data of 23 mothers and their 18- (n=12) and 23-month-old infants (n=11). Videos were coded for the duration of each infant object interaction, defined as manual displacement of an object or object part. Objects were classified as toys, small household objects designed for children (e.g., sippy-cup), small household objects designed for adults (e.g., Tupperware), large household objects (e.g., cabinet door), and food. To determine whether infants’ object interactions depend on who introduced the object, every new object was coded as mother or infant-selected. Mother-selected interactions were physical and/or verbal prompts, and preceded infant touch by less than 5 seconds; otherwise, the object interaction was coded as infant-selected.

Overall, infants spent 64% (SD=11) of the recorded hour engaging with objects, ranging from 38% to 80% of the hour. Infants predominantly interacted with toys (M=51%, SD=20.52), followed by child household objects (M=21%, SD=20.31), small household objects (M=19%, SD=14.75), food (M=6%, SD=7.72), and large household objects (M=3%, SD=3.32). Infants generally selected objects more frequently (M=69%, SD=14.7) than did mothers. However, we noted high variability between dyads in the proportional introduction of each object type by mother and infant (Figure 1). On average, children most frequently initiated interactions with large household objects (M=92%, SD=0.14), followed by toys (M=70%, SD=0.21), small household objects (M=70%, SD=0.25), child household objects (M=65%, SD=0.21), and food (M=23%, SD=0.34). Proportions of mother-selected object interactions did not relate to infants’ time spent interacting with objects.

Infants’ everyday interactions with objects are self-guided. Infants predominantly selected objects on their own, with the exception of food. Infants’ high object selection might be because all infants were proficient walkers, able to move around quickly with their hands free to reach and transport objects. We are currently investigating whether mothers of 13-month-old crawlers are more likely to select objects for infant play than mothers of walking infants. Moreover, mothers create opportunities for infant object interaction in subtle and indirect ways: they structure the environment for exploration by placing objects in the vicinity of infants they arrange rooms so that infants can access certain objects; and they restrict access to other objects and places. We are detailing the temporal sequence of infant and mother behaviors to examine whether mothers’ coordination of object engagement with infants, beyond selection of objects, supports infants’ sustained object exploration. Our research takes a first step toward illuminating the social and environmental features that encourage infants’ exploration of their everyday world.

Authors

• Jacob Lev Schatz, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Orit Herzberg, NYU
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katelyn Fletcher, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christopher A DeCamp, NYU
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jake McCallum, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kasey Soska, Databrary
  Non-Presenting Author

• Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karen E Adolph, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author