Parents influence the visual learning environment through children's manual actions

Maureen E. McQuillan, Linda B. Smith, Chen Yu, John E. Bates

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

25 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

The present research studied children in the second year of life (N = 29, Mage = 21.14 months, SD = 2.64 months) using experimental manipulations within and between subjects to show that responsive parental influence helps children have more frequent sustained object holds with fewer switches between objects compared to when parents are either not involved or over-involved. Regardless of parental involvement, sustained holds were visually rich, based on the size, centeredness, and dominance of the held object relative to other objects. These findings are important because they suggest not only that the child's body creates visually rich scenes across play contexts but also that a responsive parent can increase the frequency of these visually rich and informative moments.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)e701-e720
Number of pages20
JournalChild Development
Volume91
Issue number3
Early online date26 Jun 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2020

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