The Influence of the Number of Toys in the Environment on Play in Toddlers

Abstract

Date Presented 3/30/2017

The effect of the quantity of toys on toddlers’ play was studied by comparing play with four and 16 toys present. Quality of play was better with fewer toys present. Fewer toys is a recommendation occupational therapists can make to parents and teachers of young children.

Primary Author and Speaker: Alexia Metz

Additional Authors and Speakers: Michelle Imwalle, Carly Dauch, Brooke Wheeler

PURPOSE: Occupational therapy recognizes the importance of play as an occupation and has established a role in advocating and promoting it for children (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2008). Occupational therapists do this by helping their clients strengthen skills necessary for play, using adaptive play equipment, and providing ideal environments that foster play within all children. The Person–Environment–Occupational Model of occupational performance (Law, Cooper, Stewart, Rigby, & Letts, 1996) describes the major concepts that contribute to occupational performance and proposes that occupational therapists should use this idea in a practical and clinical sense. In the model, person, environment, and occupation are imagined as three interrelated circles that overlap as occupational performance. The goal in occupational therapy should be to maximize the fit by making the three aspects more compatible, creating a more harmonious occupational performance.

It is important to take into account the effects of environment on playfulness (Skard & Bundy, 2008). Planned play environments must be safe and accessible, appeal to multiple senses, promote different body movements, promote imagination, and allow the child to have control; however, there needs to be balance so as not to overwhelm or be too stimulating for the child (Chandler, 1997).

DESIGN: This study examined whether the number of toys in toddlers’ environments affected the quality of their play. Thirty-five healthy, typically developing toddlers ages 18–30 mo participated in this study. The study used an experimental, counterbalanced design. Each participant engaged in 20 min of supervised free play in a playroom under two conditions: the four-toy condition and the 16-toy condition. Thirty-two sit-and-play toys were used in this study.

The toys used were selected according to guidelines by AOTA (2011). The toys were gender neutral. A maximum of one quarter of the toys were battery operated. Four categories of toys were used: action, educational, pretend, and vehicles. The number of toys from each category was balanced in each condition. The toys presented were randomly selected. Conditions of toy play were presented in random order. The toddler’s play behaviors were measured from video recordings. Measurements included the number of incidences of toy play, the average duration of toy play incidences, and the average number of manners of play with each toy (each described by a unique verb). Comparisons were made using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, adjusting alpha to .017. Results are reported with mean, standard error, test statistics, and effect size.

RESULTS: Compared with the 16-toy condition, in the four-toy condition toddlers had fewer incidences of toy play (20 ± 2 for the 16-toy condition, 10 ± 1 for the four-toy condition; z = –4.367, p < .000, r = –.52), longer durations of toy play (57 ± 7 s for the 16-toy condition, 119 ± 27 s for the four-toy condition; z = –2.727, p = .006, r = –.33), and more manners of play with each toy (7 ± 0.4 for the 16-toy condition, 11 ± 0.7 for the four-toy condition; z = –4.488, p < .000, r = –.54).

CONCLUSION: The findings from this study suggest that the number of toys present in the environment can affect toddlers’ quality of play. This provides evidence that providing fewer toys in the environment promotes toddlers’ engagement in longer periods of play with a single toy, allowing them to focus on the toy at hand to explore and play more creatively with the toy. Occupational therapists can offer this recommendation regarding toy selection to help support children’s development and promote healthy play in their natural environments such as home and child care.

References

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2008). AOTA’s societal statement on play. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 62, 707–708. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.62.6.707

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2011). How to pick a toy: Checklist for toy shopping. Retrieved from http://www.aota.org/∼/media/Corporate/Files/Practice/Children/Browse/Play/toy-shopping-checklist.pdf

Chandler, B. (1997). Where do you want to play? Play environments; an occupational therapy perspective. In B. Chandler (Ed.), The essence of play (pp. 159–174). Bethesda, MD: American Occupational Therapy Association.

Law, M., Cooper, B., Stewart, D., Rigby, P., & Letts, L. (1996). The Person–Environment–Occupational Model: A transactive approach to occupational performance. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 63, 9–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/000841749606300103

Skard, G., & Bundy, A. C. (2008). Test of playfulness. In L. D. Parham & L. S. Fazio (Eds.), Play in occupational therapy for children (2nd ed., pp. 72–95). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.