Affiliation:
1. Department of Psychology New York University New York New York USA
2. Department of Physical Therapy, Hunter College City University of New York New York New York USA
3. Department of Applied Psychology New York University New York New York USA
Abstract
AbstractChildren must learn specific motor actions to use everyday objects as their designers intended. However, designed actions are not obvious to children and often are difficult to implement. Children must know what actions to do and how to execute them. Previous work identified a protracted developmental progression in learning designed actions—from nondesigned exploratory actions, to display of the designed action, to successful implementation. Presumably, caregivers can help children to overcome the challenges in discovering and implementing designed actions. Mothers of 12‐, 18‐ to 24‐, and 30‐ to 36‐month‐olds (N = 74) were asked to teach their children to open containers with twist‐off or pull‐off lids. Mothers’ manual and verbal input aligned with the developmental progression and with children's actions in the moment, pointing to the role of attuned social information in helping children learn to use objects for activities of daily living. However, mothers sometimes “overhelped” by implementing designed actions for children instead of getting children to do it themselves, highlighting the challenges of teaching novices difficult motor actions.
Funder
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Subject
Behavioral Neuroscience,Developmental Biology,Developmental Neuroscience,Developmental and Educational Psychology