Toy Play Behavior Analysis

The main purpose of the study in the article, “The Effects of Background Television on the Toy Play Behavior of Very Young Children,” is the determination of any negative impacts that background television may have on young children in regard to their play habits. This is an important matter because televisions are a common household appliance in many countries throughout the world and are often left on. Therefore, if there are negative implications on young children then the repercussions are likely to be wide spread. Considering this, it is essential that the study is thoroughly critiqued. The study was based on a sample of 17, 12-month-olds; 16, 24-month-olds; and 17, 36-month-old children. Of these 50 subjects there was little diversity with 1 Black, 2 Hispanic, and 47 White children, which

While there is definitive benefit in having total control over as many variables as possible, children may also react differently within the confines of an unfamiliar setting than they do within their own homes when playing with their own toys. Similarly, the use of an episode of Jeopardy! may have different effects on children depending on if that is a program often watched by their parents, as they would be more habituated to it than children who are used to different programs in the background.
Upon reading this research article several questions came to mind. The first of these arose when I was reading the introduction to the study and during the demographics of the participates. It was as follows – How do attention spans in young children differ between cultures in which televisions are a common household appliance in comparison to in cultures in which they are not? Answering this question could provide important information that could not only promotes further research, but also give a more complete perspective on the influence of technology such as TV’s on attention