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Getting some space: Infants' and caregivers' containment and support spatial constructions during play

Marianella Casasola1, Jui Bhagwat2, Stacey N Doan3

  • 1Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|March 13, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Infants develop spatial construction skills like containment and support through play. By 18 months, infants create more containment relations, which caregivers reinforce through labeling.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Infant Spatial Cognition

Background:

  • Infants' understanding of spatial relations is crucial for cognitive development.
  • Early play interactions shape infants' spatial construction abilities.
  • Nesting toys provide a platform to study spatial relation development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the development of containment and support spatial constructions in infants.
  • To compare infants' self-generated constructions with those observed during caregiver interaction.
  • To examine the role of caregiver labeling in reinforcing spatial concepts.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional study with 76 infants aged 8, 13, and 18 months.
  • Infants engaged in 2-minute solitary play followed by 2-minute dyadic play with a caregiver using a nesting toy.
  • Observed and analyzed the types of spatial relations (containment, support) created by infants and caregivers.

Main Results:

  • At 8 months, infants formed minimal relations; at 13 months, they demonstrated containment and support constructions.
  • By 18 months, infants created significantly more containment relations than support relations (over three times as many).
  • Caregivers produced more support than containment relations but verbally emphasized containment more frequently.

Conclusions:

  • Infants show increasing proficiency in creating spatial relations, particularly containment, from 8 to 18 months.
  • Dyadic play and caregiver input, especially verbal labeling, enhance infants' understanding and use of spatial concepts like containment.
  • Differential exposure to containment and support occurs in solitary versus caregiver-assisted play, with 18-month-olds gaining more firsthand containment experience.

Keywords:
Caregiver spatial constructionsCaregiver spatial languageInfant motor skillsInfant playInfant spatial constructionsSpatial play

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