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Playful Relationships: A Contextual Analysis of Mother‐Toddler Interaction and Symbolic Play
Author(s) -
Fiese Barbara H.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02891.x
Subject(s) - intrusiveness , psychology , toddler , developmental psychology , reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , social relation , social psychology , the symbolic , psychoanalysis
The relation between social interaction and complexity of toddler's symbolic play was investigated. 57 toddlers between 15 and 24 months of age were observed under 4 conditions: (1) child play alone, (2) child play with mother, (3) child modeling mother, and (4) child play with mother following the modeling condition. Each subject was rated on complexity of play, maternal attention directing, reciprocity, and maternal intrusiveness. Significant condition effects were found in which more complex forms of play were observed when the children were playing with their mothers than when playing by themselves. Maternal intrusions and questioning were negatively related to symbolic play. Turn‐taking was negatively related to simple exploratory play. Results of a sequential analysis demonstrated that turn‐taking was more likely to precede symbolic play, and maternal intrusiveness was more likely to precede simple exploratory play. The role of active partnership in symbolic play development is discussed.