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.
1. Traditional toys: a farm animal
puzzle, a shape-sorter, and rubber
blocks
2. Electronic toys that were marketed
as being “educational”: a baby
laptop, a talking farm, and a baby
cell phone
3. 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
1. The number of words produced by
the adults during the play session
2. 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
3. The number of speech-like child
vocalizations
4. The number of conversational
turns, which was measured as an
utterance by either the parent or
infant that occurred within 5
seconds of an utterance made by
the other conversational partner
5. 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 do 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.
1. 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 do 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.
2. 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.