Written by Tobias Constien

Recently, we set up our new toy kitchen at the UCD Babylab. Next to computers, eye-trackers, and EEG equipment, children coming to the lab now have space to play, bake, and cook. While adults often view it as an onerous chore, children get excited about cooking – even if it’s “just pretend”. Where does this fascination come from? This blog posts looks at some recent research to find what gets children cooking!

My first job after starting my PhD at the UCD Babylab was to assemble our new toy kitchen. It sparked a lot of conversation among the PhD students about their favourite childhood toys, and since, I've noticed many of them—usually busy writing papers or analysing data—taking breaks to play around with the toy stovetop or microwave.

I remember myself playing in our toy kitchen with my friends when we were children. We would pretend going to the shop, buying groceries, and loading up our fridge with cartons of milk, colourful wooden fruits, or vegetables. No matter how old you are – I bet you remember playing with a toy kitchen as well. Toy kitchens are one of the classic toys for children. They are reported to have been first developed in the middle-ages, providing fun, distraction, and, indeed, opportunities for development to children across centuries.

If you browse through the catalogue of any toy manufacturer, you will likely find toy kitchens of all shapes and sizes. Manufacturers often advertise their specific toys as particularly beneficial to children’s development, yet without the necessary scientific evidence to back up their claims. Recognizing this obscurity in the toy marketplace, the American Academy of Paediatrics recently issued guidance for parents (Healey et al., 2019). Based on cumulative evidence, they say that the specific toy itself does not matter as much to development compared to the social interaction it stimulates between children and their parents, peers, or siblings. In other words, they recommend toys that encourage collaboration.

In this regard, simple kitchen equipment has been shown to be particularly valuable in eliciting varied social interactions that are rich in language, pretending, cooperation, and creativity. A study from researchers in Australia (Quinn & Kidd, 2019), for example, invited parents and their 18-month-old infants to play either with simple kitchen equipment (i.e., a saucepan, wooden spoon, teacups) or more functional toys (i.e.., a wooden puzzle, drawing board). They found that parents playing with the kitchen equipment were more engaged in their child’s play compared to families solving the puzzle or using the drawing board. As such, the kitchen toys encouraged more interaction and facilitated communication between parents and children, which subsequently can promote further development of language and cognition. In other words, a simple saucepan and wooden ladle may be just as beneficial for children’s development as an expensive, elaborate toy kitchen as long as children can have engaging, exciting, and safe interactions with their parents, peers, or siblings while playing.

Our kitchen at the UCD Babylab also came with the promise of “encouraging development” on its packaging. It features enticing buttons to push, and the stovetop lights up when you put a pot down. Like the researchers in Australia from the example above, we are interested in which aspects of children’s play specifically encourage development. We chose to investigate the value of children’s imagination in play – something that a toy kitchen also encourages. We’ll keep you updated on this research via our website, but for now, we are just excited how children will react to our new toy kitchen!

References

Healey, A., Mendelsohn, A., Sells, J. M., Donoghue, E., Earls, M., Hashikawa, A., McFadden, T., Peacock, G., Scholer, S., Takagishi, J., Vanderbilt, D., & Williams, P. G. (2019). Selecting Appropriate Toys for Young Children in the Digital Era. Pediatrics, 143(1). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-3348

Quinn, S., & Kidd, E. (2019). Symbolic play promotes non-verbal communicative exchange in infant-caregiver dyads. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 37(1), 33-50. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12251

The Babylab has got something cooking!

Further Reading:

Read more about my PhD Project on children’s play

Tips for Choosing Toys for Toddlers

References