Emergent patterns in the development of young children's object play

The present study set out to examine developments in object play in a contemporary sample of 289 typically developing children from 8- to 60-months of age. The value of object play centers on developments in object knowledge and mental representation, along with the developmental processes of decentration, substitution, and agency. The early play studies focused on one or another of these aspects of development, and generally for the age group 12-36 months. The present study sought to expand this age period and to examine these processes in relation to one another and how they build upon each other in development. Videorecorded observations of the children's play activities were collected in homes for children recruited at 8-, 12-, 18-, 24-, 30-, 36-, 42-, 48-, 54-, and 60-months of age. Children were White (70%); of mixed racial/cultural backgrounds (14%); Asian (7%); Black (6%); and Latinx (3%); 49% were boys; 51% were girls. Twenty-seven categories of object play were identified. Progress was analyzed in frequency of category occurrence and variety of examples expressed within a category. Some categories occurred with robust frequency and variety, and others did not. Within-subjects analyses of variance revealed significant interactions between age and categories. Exploratory factor analyses of variety suggested clusters of categories representing cognitive change. Discussion centers on the intersection of cognitive development with experience, the covariation of developments in play, and the usefulness of frequency and variety as measures of play.