Playtime Preferences: How Children’s Interactions Differ in Child vs. Grown-Up Activities—and What It Means for Their Future!

Children spend much of their time interacting with various objects in their environment (Herzberg et al., 2022). These interactions, which commonly occur in the company of another person, allow children to gain knowledge and learn a variety of new and essential skills (Junyi & Schulz, 2023; Rachwani et al., 2021). However, not much is known about how play changes when the type of play transitions from being child-oriented to parent-oriented. This study investigates how children’s play behaviors vary across child- and parent-oriented activities, focusing on initiation and orientation frequencies, and their associations with vocabulary and temperament. Using data from the Play & Learning Across a Year (PLAY) Project, 12-, 18-, and 24-month-old infants were observed interacting with their mothers, at home, over a one-hour period. Play was categorized as child-oriented, parent-oriented, or joint-oriented, and initiation as parent or child. The findings reveal that child-oriented play occurs more often than parent-oriented play across all age groups, although the duration within each play type is similar across all three age groups. Contrary to our hypotheses, more parent-oriented activities did not correlate with vocabulary size or effortful control, but there was a negative correlation for bouts of child-oriented play and vocabulary size. These results highlight how infants engage in play; however, further research is needed to better understand types of play and their implications for child development.