Children’s toys and games at an early age – from baby ipads to other
electronic gadgets – are increasingly designed to improve language development.
A study published in December 2015 in the JAMA
Pediatrics journal found that electronic gadgets may be no more than a
distraction, and getting back to the starting blocks – the simple wooden
alphabet blocks – and books, may still be the best toys for language
development (Well, December 23, 2015).
Associate professor of communications science and disorders at Northern
Arizona University in America, Anna V. Sosa, led a study on babies and
electronic toys that were specifically advertised as language-promoters. The
study is not new, as it buids on previous research into electronic toys and
e-books and their impact on child development. However, the aim of the study
was to capture ‘real world parent-child playtime in their homes without researchers
watching.’
The study involved 26 families in America – most were white, female, and
educated. Parents were given three sets of toys: (1) electronic toys including
baby laptops, cellphones, and a talking farm, (2) traditional toys such as
alphabet blocks and farm animal puzzles, and (3) board books about colours,
shapes, and animals. Over three days, parents and their babies (aged 10 to 16
months) played for two 15-minute sessions with each set of toys. Parents were
given audio recording devices that were turned on for the full three days,
including the play sessions.
The results showed that when parents and babies played with electronic toys,
that were designed as language-promoters, parents spoke less and responded less
to baby babbling than when they played with traditional toys like blocks and
books. Babies vocalized less when playing with electronic toys. The results
were consistent for all families. The results were the same regardless of the
gender of the baby, the age of the baby, the gender or age of the parent, or
whether the parent was a ‘more chatty person’ or not.
When language-promoting electronic toys were used, parents said about 40
words per minute, on average, compared with 56 words per minute when they
played with traditional blocks and 67 words per minute when they played with
books.
Parents used fewer words that were relevant to the content of the toy. For
example, when playing with books and blocks, parents were more likely to say
‘that’s a piggy’ or ‘that barn is red.’ Words and sentences, such as these
reinforcer sentences, were said over four times more often with books than with
electronic toys, and more than twice as often with traditional toys than with
electronic toys.
Sosa said that it seemed as if parents were letting the baby interact with
the electronic toy and therefore placing themselves on the sidelines. The
electronic toys were providing some feedback – which the parents did for the
traditional toys. Therefore parents let the electronic gadgets provide the feedback
– do the talking – instead of the parents talking as much as they would during
the play sessions with traditional toys and books.
Sosa said that for language-promoter toys and games, ideally, ‘a toy should
be 10% toy and 90% child’ and added that ‘with a lot of these electronic toys,
the toy takes over 90% and the child just fills in the blank.’
The researchers admitted that the sample size of just 26 families was a
small study. Therefore there was little diversity of the families. A larger
study would enable a more diversified group to be studied.
In addition, the study does not actually examine language development, per
se – what it does is study the interaction between parent and baby during
playtime with different sets of toys. It does not measure language development
over a period of time. While the study aimed to be a ‘real world’ view of playtime, it was still
managed by the researchers – in that it was only for three days – therefore it
didn’t study other interactions with other children and adults (as with
brothers and sisters, carers, grandparents visiting the home etc.) or single
parents versus non-single parents, and a range of other factors. In the real
world, often there is a combination of toys during playtime – such as books,
blocks, stuffed animals, and other objects around the home (spoons, pets,
paper, parent’s fingers, etc.)
Image credit : krro.com
MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:-
The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends
(2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan
Curse (2009).
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