Determining gender‐neutral toys for assessment of preschool children's imaginative play

Abstract

A review of the gender literature found that by preschool age (4–5 years), children were aware of gender roles and chose to play with same‐gender peers and gender‐typed toys. This knowledge has implications for play assessments in occupational therapy, as poor performance on a play assessment may be due to the preschool child's perception that the toys presented were not gender appropriate. The current study chose imaginative or symbolic play to examine the toy choices made by 36 normal preschool children in order to establish a set of toys that were acceptable to girls and boys. Children were presented with ‘boys’ toys, ‘girls’ toys and gender‐neutral toys. Girls were found to be less gender typed, as defined by adults, in toy choice than boys. A farm set comprising a tractor, trailer, farm animals, fences and a wrench was found to be a gender‐neutral set of toys suitable for children's imaginative play. A small male figure and a small female figure were also included because both boys and girls related to a character such as a teddy or a doll. Selected ‘junk’ play materials were confirmed to be gender‐neutral.