Observations of young normal and handicapped children

An observational study was made of 1-2-year-old children, and of mentally handicapped children functioning at a similar level, to determine the extent to which they involved themselves in play with toys and other objects and the extent to which their day was "empty". Observations of normal children were made in their homes and in day nurseries; observations of mentally handicapped children were made at home, in day care centres (special schools) and in the schools and wards of subnormality hospitals. In no setting were children interacting with adults for more than 20% of their non-routine time. These findings seem to justify concern over independent play with toys and other objects. The handicapped children in all settings had "emptier" days than the normal children, this being accounted for by greater amounts of inattentive handling of objects and self-stimulation and lesser amounts of social interaction and attentive play. However, attentive play scores for the handicapped children varied markedly with setting. In appropriate circumstances, there can be as much spontaneous contact with objects in handicapped children as in normal children at a similar development level. Despite current concern over the effects of day care on the development of very young children, normal children in day nurseries did not differ from normal children at home, either in attentive play scores or in the proportion of nonroutine time spent interacting with adults.