Play Interactions Research Articles

Enhancing playful interactions: eCoaching mothers of preschool children with disabilities

Enhancing playful interactions: eCoaching mothers of preschool children with disabilities

Firstborn's empathy and the sibling relationship quality: The moderating role of maternal emotional availability.

This study examined how a firstborn child's empathy interacts with maternal emotional availability (EA) to predict later positive sibling relationships. The study included 108 families expecting a second child who also had a 10- to 45-month-old firstborn child (M = 24.6 months, SD = 7.42; 58 girls). Before the second-born child arrived, the firstborn child's empathic abilities were measured, and a mother-child play interaction was videotaped and coded for maternal EA. At 16-18 months postpartum, mothers completed questionnaires assessing the quality of the sibling relationship. Maternal EA moderated the link between the firstborn's cognitive and emotional empathy and the quality of the sibling relationship. Higher levels of emotional and cognitive empathy predicted better sibling relationships for children whose mothers were more emotionally available. Implications for early interventions are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Social Gaming to Decrease Loneliness in Older Adults: Recruitment Challenges and Attrition Analysis in a Digital Mixed Methods Feasibility Study.

Digital mental health interventions could sustainably and scalably prevent and reduce loneliness in older adults. We designed an app containing 29 text-based games and a questionnaire-administering chatbot to stimulate intergenerational contact. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of a social gaming app in reducing loneliness among older adults by evaluating recruitment strategies, data collection procedures, and gameplay activity. This mixed methods study recruited participants via newsletters, articles, and a social media campaign. We used semistructured interviews and descriptive analysis of questionnaire answers and game data to assess feasibility. Key measures included recruitment reach and efficiency, participant demographics, in-app activity, and app usability and engagement feedback. The social media campaign reached 192,641 potential participants, resulting in 1363 game downloads. A total of 155 participants (aged 65 years and older: n=34, 21.9% and aged less than 65 years: n=121, 78.1%) provided informed consent, yielding a conversion rate of 0.08%. The recruitment campaign focusing on distanced playful interaction had a significantly (P<.001) higher click-through rate (1.98%) than a campaign focusing on research participation (click-through rate=0.51%; P<.001). The overall conversion rate from advertisement exposure to research participation was 0.08%. Participants had a mean age of 48 (SD 16) years. The 65 years and older group averaged 70 (SD 5) years, while the less 65 years group averaged 42 (SD 12) years. Additionally, 45.2% (57/126) reported at least moderate levels of loneliness at baseline. Of the initial 554 players, 91 (16.4%) remained active after the first week, and 32 (5.8%) remained active for more than 90 days. Active participants tended to interact with those within their own age group, as indicated by a Pearson correlation of r=0.31 between the ages of the message sender and receiver. Interviews with 12 (48%) participants (aged 65-79 years; female: n=12, 83%) revealed barriers such as excessive chatbot questions and a mismatch between the target group and app design focus. Questionnaire completion rates dropped from 46% at baseline to 10% at follow-up. These findings underscore the challenges of recruitment and retention for older adults in a fully digital social gaming intervention. Effective recruitment strategies and targeted app design are crucial for engagement. Based on these insights, future interventions should focus on simplified interfaces, clear guidance for gameplay, and addressing the specific needs and preferences of older adults, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of digital mental health interventions.

Semiotic packaging of teacher talk for affective recyclings: A usage-based approach to children's construction development

This study examines how iconically designed teacher talk facilitates preschool novice L2 learners' construction development through playful interactions. It combines two approaches: ethnomethodological conversation analysis and usage-based linguistics. The conversational data were retrieved from teacher-children interactions filmed at an all-English school in Japan. The microanalysis of 945-min classroom interactions illustrated that when a part of teacher talk was packaged with iconic semiotic resources, such as gestures, situated meanings, tones of voice, and affective stances, it became accessible L2 resources for the children to learn and recycle in their subsequent utterances. Simultaneously, the analysis also revealed the pragmatic mechanism of teachers' assignment of interactional responsibility, inviting children to perform language learning of target constructions through recyclings. The recycled part of the teacher talk indicated the children's microgenetic usage-based language learning as they modified and developed L2 constructions to accomplish certain social actions—sanction of a deviated action, attention-getting, and storytelling in situ. This study indicates that language learning opportunities can be integrated into children's processes of achieving specific social actions, and language learning performance can be invited as an appropriate practice in situ by certain teacher talk designs.

Learning from Users: Everyday Playful Interactions to Support Architectural Spatial Changes

While there's growing interest in eliciting situated playful interactions with technologies in different contexts, how these interactions might shape everyday spaces still needs to be fully explored. To address this gap, this article aims to guide the architectural spatial changes by exploring everyday playful interactions of technology-adopted users in domestic spaces. We present our contributions in a two-fold study: First, through an extensive diary study involving 13 technology-adopted residents in gated communities, where distinct boundaries offer increased opportunities for playful interactions, we identified four playful themes: (1) creating and expanding play-spaces, (2) balancing play and comfort, (3) intertwining imagination with spatial experience, and (4) gamifying household interactions. Secondly, by building on these themes, we outline three design implications to inform architectural design processes, aiming to translate everyday playful interactions into tangible spatial changes. These implications include adapting shape-changing and wearable technologies for playful flexibility, embedding new forms of communications within infrastructures, and turning homes into interactive entities with multi-sensory technologies. While these findings provide a starting point for exploring new architectural design possibilities in similar environments, further research with architects, policymakers, and design researchers in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Human-Building Interaction (HBI) fields is essential to actualizing these changes.

Participatory Design of an Embodied Mixed Reality Experience Aimed to Assessing Individual and Collaborative Behaviors of Children

This study is part of a broader project exploring the integration of Mixed Reality (MR) in fostering prosocial behaviors among children, particularly focusing on interpersonal synchrony (IPS) and its impact on collaboration. IPS, the coordination of rhythmic movements among individuals, has been associated with improved group cohesion and prosocial behaviors, such as collaboration. Traditional assessments of prosociality typically involve structured play activities for dyads, making them difficult to adapt to other settings. To address these limitations, this research aims to design a flexible embodied MR experience that allows children to choose between collaborative or individual engagement, reflecting the natural dynamics of children's play interactions. For this purpose, we conducted an embodied participatory design (PD) and usability study with 50 children aged 8-10 years. We provide a detailed account on how the PD process was orchestrated and an evaluation of user-system interaction, children's perceptions of play modes, and experience satisfaction. The results show how the MR experience, codesigned with children, supports a free play environment, allowing children to choose their preferred play mode. This study highlights the potential of MR in psychological research and child development, providing a new avenue for assessing individual and collaborative behaviors in larger groups of children.

Enhanced Infant Movement Analysis Using Transformer-Based Fusion of Diverse Video Features for Neurodevelopmental Monitoring

Neurodevelopment is a highly intricate process, and early detection of abnormalities is critical for optimizing outcomes through timely intervention. Accurate and cost-effective diagnostic methods for neurological disorders, particularly in infants, remain a significant challenge due to the heterogeneity of data and the variability in neurodevelopmental conditions. This study recruited twelve parent–infant pairs, with infants aged 3 to 12 months. Approximately 25 min of 2D video footage was captured, documenting natural play interactions between the infants and toys. We developed a novel, open-source method to classify and analyse infant movement patterns using deep learning techniques, specifically employing a transformer-based fusion model that integrates multiple video features within a unified deep neural network. This approach significantly outperforms traditional methods reliant on individual video features, achieving an accuracy of over 90%. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis revealed that the pose estimation contributed far less to the model’s output than the pre-trained transformer and convolutional neural network (CNN) components, providing key insights into the relative importance of different feature sets. By providing a more robust, accurate and low-cost analysis of movement patterns, our work aims to enhance the early detection and potential prediction of neurodevelopmental delays, whilst providing insight into the functioning of the transformer-based fusion models of diverse video features.

Longitudinal Study on the Pragmatic Language Skills during Play Activities in Preschool Children Who Stutter and Who do not Stutter

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate whether there are any differences in pragmatic language skills between preschool children who stutter (hereafter, CWS) and those who do not stutter (hereafter, CWNS) in natural play interactions with their parents. Additionally, the study sought to examine the relationship between pragmatic language skills and children’s stuttering. Methods: 7 CWNS and 7 CWS aged 2-5 years, and their parents participated in the study. In a total of three times at 12-month intervals, their interactions during play activities were collected to analyze abnormal disfluency (AD), normal disfluency (ND) frequency, and pragmatic language skills (initiation utterance of child, initiation of utterance of mother and utterance turn-taking). Between-group comparisons of variables were made by collection period (initial evaluation, 12 months later, 24 months later). Results: First, the AD frequency of the CWS group was statistically significantly higher than that of the CWNS group at the initial evaluation and at 12 months, and there was no significant difference between the two groups at 24 months. Second, the frequency of initiation of utterance in CWNS group was significantly higher than that of the CWS group in the initial evaluation. At 12 months and 24 months, children with stutter had a similar degree of initiation of utterance as that of typical children. Third, there was no significant difference between the CWS and CWNS group in utterance turn-taking. The difference in the frequency of utterances and turn-taking between CWS and CWNS group tended to increase over time. Conclusion: These findings confirmed that stuttering in children is influenced by their pragmatic language skills. This suggests the need for parent-child interaction and parental education programs that enhance children’s pragmatic language skills, which may positively impact fluency in CWS.

Moments of togetherness: humour and playful interactions in the toddler peer group

ABSTRACT Toddlers often use humour to engage their peers in acts of playful interactions as they build a sense of togetherness through a ‘mutual we’. In this paper, we discuss the findings of a study where the aim was to examine the embodied strategies toddlers use to engage their peers in interactions that are playful and full of humour. The study is an ethnomethodological study using conversation analysis (EMCA) to examine interactions that were video recorded over a nine-month period in an childhood education and care (ECEC) setting in Iceland. The findings explore how toddlers use humour connected to their available environmental resources to recruit other children into their play and explore social conventions and rules within their setting. These findings contribute to the growing body of early childhood research that positions this young age group as competent and imaginative in co-creating moments of togetherness, building the ‘mutual we’ within their peer group.

유아의 놀이 상호작용이 언어 및 문해력과 수리적 사고에 미치는 영향 -사회적 유능감의 매개효과-

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating effect of social competence in the structural relationship between child's play interactions and social competence, language and literacy, and mathematical thinking. For this purpose, data from the 7th year of the Korean Child Panel(2014) provided by the Korea Institute for Childcare Policy(KICE) were used, and a total of 667 young children and their classroom teachers were analyzed. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis, structural model analysis, and path analysis were conducted using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 22.0. The results of this study are as follows. First, children's play interactions had an effect on language and literacy, but not on mathematical thinking. Second, children's play interactions had a statistically positive effect on social competence. Third, children's social competence had a statistically positive effect on language, literacy, and mathematical thinking. Fourth, social competence was found to partially mediate the relationship between children's play interactions and language and literacy skills, and social competence was found to fully mediate the relationship between children's play interactions and mathematical thinking.

Preschool educators’ use of commanding language in China and Japan: a cross-cultural comparative study

ABSTRACT The manner in which educators use commands, a form of language that serves to guide and regulate behaviour, constitutes an essential component of children’s learning experiences in relation to language and social interactions. This study investigated nine Chinese and nine Japanese educators’ use of commanding language in educator-child free play interactions. Totally, 4296 clauses generated by the educators were analysed, drawn on systemic functional linguistic theory that classifies command based on its semantic feature. The results show that Chinese educators generally uttered more commanding language than Japanese educators. The proportion of direct & non-suggestive commands (revealing speakers’ authority) dominated in both cohorts, yet Chinese educators rated significantly higher than Japanese educators. The proportion of indirect and suggestive commands (carrying negotiation tones) in Japanese educators’ language was significantly higher than Chinese educators. The effect of child age on the educators’ commanding language was identified. Compared to the Chinese educators, Japanese educators uttered much less commands when interacting with children under four years, however, the gap was narrowed when communicating with children above four years. The findings illustrate how the educators create culturally-different language experiences for children in daily interactions, which has implications for worldwide preschool education in multicultural contexts.

Supporting parents in facilitating computational thinking for young children through loose parts construction play

AbstractComputational thinking (CT) as an essential problem‐solving and thinking skill for all students has been the focus of much interest from education systems all over the world (Chen et al., 2023). Unplugged activities like constructing and play with loose parts provide a low‐cost solution to naturally weave in learning of CT skills for young children at home and formal learning environments. Such activities provide opportunities particularly for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to access learning of CT skills so they will not be left behind. This article describes the pilot study of a programme that introduced an open‐ended construction play activity using loose‐parts to parent–child dyads from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, with the aim to support parents in facilitating play interactions in ways to promote CT skills for their children using question cards. The cards contained questions that parents could use to foster CT skills like decomposition and algorithmic thinking in their play interactions. Focus group discussions were held before and after the play sessions and parents in the study reported more confidence in supporting their children in play and learning of 21st century skills of teamwork, collaboration and CT skills. The results demonstrate the potential of unplugged pedagogy for promoting CT skills for young children especially in the home environment through engagement with families, with implications for home–school collaborative learning environments and parent education. Recommendations for practice and research are provided accordingly.

Sport, Play, Games, and Sounds

This article questions the interaction of sport, play, games, and sounds. Its philosophical approach is based on the works of Bernard Suits, especially his description of the ‘tricky triad’ (the overlapping notions of sport, game, and play), and investigates the relation of this triad to music. Subsequently, the notion of gesture is explored as a common denominator to these activities. Then, this article adopts a semiotic approach and considers analogical processes between sport gestures and music gestures (and their corresponding sounds). In addition, this study develops the concept of ‘transitional topic,’ which argues that ‘sport’ does not act as a direct topic in music but is mediated through various other topics (e.g., the march, the fanfare, or the music exercise). Each of these theoretical explorations is grounded in analyses of pieces by Benjamin Britten (“Playful Pizzicato,” Peter Grimes, “Early Morning Bathe,” and Three Divertimenti). Britten’s music is used as a counterpoint to explore the theoretical perspectives of this article, as his music showcases the crossover between sport-like, play-like, and game-like aesthetics.

Depth and Quality of Recommendations in Popular Sources About How to Play with Infants: Content Analysis

Aim Systematically evaluate the depth and quality of play recommendations provided in popular sources for parents of infants in the first year of life. Methods This represents the second stage of a larger analysis of educational content available to parents. Two coders (>90% agreement) extracted and coded play activities from popular websites, applications, and books screened from a systematic online search. Depth of instruction variables were extracted. Activity quality was rated based on opportunities for child-initiated movement, problem-solving with objects, and responsive communication. Results 4370 play activities from 214 sources were analyzed. Activities were likely to suggest specific ages for infants and that a caregiver be present. Less than half of the activities incorporated toys or provided guidance about how to position or physically support infants. Activity quality was low; most activities did not explicitly encourage parents to provide opportunities for child-initiated movement, problem-solving with objects, or quality communication. Conclusions Parents may encounter a large number of play activities in popular sources, but the depth of instruction and quality of those activities could be improved. Provision of higher-quality education to parents may enhance parent-child play interactions to positively impact parent and child outcomes, especially for children at risk for delays.

Animal-assisted education: Perception of teachers and parents on the impact of the DOG project

Introduction: Research regarding Animal-Assisted Education (AAE) is a relatively new field. Due to the growing number of programs in the field, investigating AAE interventions is important. The aim of this study was to gain insight into teachers’ and parents’/caregivers’ perceptions of the impacts of a specific form of Animal-Assisted Service (AAS, formerly Animal-Assisted Intervention (AAI) namely, an Animal-Assisted Education (AAE) program for primary school students, as offered in the Netherlands. Materials and methods: This study was designed as an exploratory qualitative study, executed by means of interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire. Twelve teachers and ten parents/caregivers were interviewed. The analysis started with open coding and was followed by axial and selective coding. Results: There is significant agreement regarding the positive influence of AAE on the perception of teachers and parents. Both notice an impact beyond the context of the AAE sessions in the areas of communication, social-emotional development, self-confidence, and environmental factors. Teachers also note that the AAE project has provided them with insights that influence their professional development. Conclusion: It can be cautiously stated that 10 sessions, according to the DOG project, had a positive impact on the social-emotional development of elementary school students according to their parents and teachers. Further research on what AAE means for students is recommended. Considering the unforeseen and impactful outcome of this playful interaction initiative on teachers, it is advised to conduct subsequent research to further explore the underlying mechanisms, aiming to enhance the professional development of teachers.

Ideational Praxis, Play, and Playfulness: A Cross-Sectional Study of Autistic Children

Abstract Importance: Assessment of praxis skills is an essential aspect of understanding autistic children’s development of play and playfulness. Objective: To assess the relationship and influence of ideational praxis skills on play skills and playfulness among autistic children. Design: A cross-sectional study. Settings: Homes, schools, and early care centers across Spain. Participants: Children ages 4 yr 6 mo to 6 yr 11 mo (45 typically developing [TP] and 45 with autism spectrum disorder [ASD]). Outcomes and Measures: Student’s t tests were used to compare means between the two groups. Pearson’s correlation and multiple linear regression were used to determine possible effects of ideational skills on play and playfulness. Results: Scores for the TP group were significantly higher than those of the ASD group on all play dimensions—space management, t(88) = 4.58; material management, t(88) = 5.86; pretense–symbolism, t(88) = 8.12; and participation, t(88) = 7.31—and on the Test of Playfulness (ToP), t(88) = 10.18, and Test of Ideational Praxis (TIP), t(88) = 4.38 (all ps &amp;lt; .001). Multiple linear regression revealed a statistically significant effect of TIP dimensions—space management, F(3, 41) = 4.83, p &amp;lt; .042; material management, F(3.41) = 8.49. p &amp;lt; .001; pretense–symbolism, F(3, 41) = 5.66. p &amp;lt; .002; and participation, F(3.41) = 7.81. p &amp;lt; .001—and on the ToP, F(3, 41) = 5.96. p &amp;lt; .002. Conclusions and Relevance: Ideational praxis skills combined with diagnostic information significantly predicted play skills and playfulness, highlighting the influence of ideation on play. Plain-Language Summary: This article provides data supporting the influence of ideational praxis skills on the play skills and playfulness of autistic children. Understanding how ideational praxis skills affect the ability to recognize and act on object affordances might promote greater possibilities for play interactions among autistic children.

Rapid facial mimicry as a regulator of play in a despotic macaque species

During risky interactions like social play, motor resonance phenomena such as facial mimicry can be highly adaptive. Here, we studied Rapid Facial Mimicry (RFM, the automatic mimicking of a playmate’s facial expression, play faces) during play fighting between young rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) living in a large zoo-housed group. For the first time and in contrast to previous data on highly despotic-intolerant macaques, we found RFM to be present at high frequency in young rhesus macaques, especially when the trigger was dominant over the responder and when both players were subadults. The hierarchical modulation of RFM may be associated with the increased uncertainty and riskiness of play involving a higher-ranking playmate. This highlights the importance of mimicry in improving communication and coordination during such interactions. Interestingly, RFM prolonged playful sessions, possibly indicating a more effective fine-tuning of motor patterns. Moreover, the occurrence of RFM had an effect on shortening the latency to restart playing after a break, possibly acting as an engine to potentially maintain playmates’ arousal. When investigating if bystanders could replicate play faces emitted by the playing subjects, we failed to find RFM, thus highlighting that being directly involved in the interaction might be crucial for RFM activation in monkeys. Even though further comparative studies should investigate the role of RFM across tolerant and despotic-intolerant species, our findings offer valuable insights into the communicative and adaptive value of motor resonance phenomena in regulating social play in despotic societies.Significance statementIn risky interactions involving competition and vigorous physical contact, such as play fighting, replicating partners’ facial expressions can serve as a strategy to convey positive mood and intentions. Here we investigated the presence and possible roles of Rapid Facial Mimicry (RFM) in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). For the first time, our study demonstrates that communicative strategies, including Rapid Facial Mimicry (RFM), can be both present and frequent in despotic-intolerant macaque species. We demonstrate that the role of mimicry not only prolongs playful interactions but can also be linked to the reinforcement and/or transmission of playful arousal. Our study shows how the adaptive value of motor resonance phenomena may have driven their evolution to cope with challenges during social interactions also for despotic-intolerant species.

Positive affect expression during a play interaction and psychological health among older adults living with cognitive impairment and their adult children

Objectives We examined the extent to which positive affect expression in play interactions between adult children and their parents living with cognitive impairment was associated with lower depressive symptoms and mental health difficulties for both dyad members. Gender differences in positive affect expression were also examined. Method Dyads (N = 126) self-reported their depressive symptoms and mental health difficulties. Dyad members later engaged in a video-recorded play interaction together, and their positive affect expression was observationally coded by trained coders in terms of ‘enjoyment’, ‘laughter’, and ‘positive affect towards partner’. Results Findings from mixed models using the Actor Partner Interdependence Model showed that one’s partner’s positive affect was associated with one’s own lower depressive symptoms. There were no significant actor effects or effects of role (parent vs. child). Results also revealed that women expressed more positive affect and had greater mental health difficulties, but not depressive symptoms. We found that one’s partner’s positive affect expressions were more associated with women’s mental health than men’s mental health. Conclusion Positive affect expression may be a useful indicator of psychological health in parent-child relationships in which the parent has cognitive impairment. Positive affect may be useful to target in supportive, dyadic, psychosocial interventions.

Parent attention-orienting behavior is associated with neural entropy in infancy.

Parents use joint attention to direct infants to environmental stimuli. We hypothesized that infants whose parents provide more bids for joint attention will display a more complex neural response when viewing social scenes. Sixty-one 8-month-old infants underwent electroencephalography (EEG) while viewing videos of joint- and parallel-play and participated in a free play interaction. EEG data was analyzed using multiscale entropy, which quantifies neural variability. Free play interactions assessed parent alternating gaze, a behavioral mechanism for directing attention to environmental cues. We found a significant positive association between parent alternating gaze and neural entropy in frontal and central regions. These results suggest a relationship between parent behavior and infant neural mechanisms that regulate social attention, underlying the importance of parental cues in forming neural networks.

Infant-directed communication: Examining the many dimensions of everyday caregiver-infant interactions.

Everyday caregiver-infant interactions are dynamic and multidimensional. However, existing research underestimates the dimensionality of infants' experiences, often focusing on one or two communicative signals (e.g., speech alone, or speech and gesture together). Here, we introduce "infant-directed communication" (IDC): the suite of communicative signals from caregivers to infants including speech, action, gesture, emotion, and touch. We recorded 10min of at-home play between 44 caregivers and their 18- to 24-month-old infants from predominantly white, middle-class, English-speaking families in the United States. Interactions were coded for five dimensions of IDC as well as infants' gestures and vocalizations. Most caregivers used all five dimensions of IDC throughout the interaction, and these dimensions frequently overlapped. For example, over 60% of the speech that infants heard was accompanied by one or more non-verbal communicative cues. However, we saw marked variation across caregivers in their use of IDC, likely reflecting tailored communication to the behaviors and abilities of their infant. Moreover, caregivers systematically increased the dimensionality of IDC, using more overlapping cues in response to infant gestures and vocalizations, and more IDC with infants who had smaller vocabularies. Understanding how and when caregivers use all five signals-together and separately-in interactions with infants has the potential to redefine how developmental scientists conceive of infants' communicative environments, and enhance our understanding of the relations between caregiver input and early learning. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Infants' everyday interactions with caregivers are dynamic and multimodal, but existing research has underestimated the multidimensionality (i.e., the diversity of simultaneously occurring communicative cues) inherent in infant-directed communication. Over 60% of the speech that infants encounter during at-home, free play interactions overlap with one or more of a variety of non-speech communicative cues. The multidimensionality of caregivers' communicative cues increases in response to infants' gestures and vocalizations, providing new information about how infants' own behaviors shape their input. These findings emphasize the importance of understanding how caregivers use a diverse set of communicative behaviors-both separately and together-during everyday interactions with infants.