Forget the whiz-bang toy … give ‘em the box to play with.

Work at the Research School of Psychology of the Australian National University shows that toddlers’ symbolic play, which involves use of the imagination, promotes language development more effectively than functional play, such as solving puzzles, building with blocks or drawing.

Over fifty infants’ early language development was tracked according to the style of play toddlers engaged in with their parents.

The lead researcher, Dr Sara Quinn, proposes that the key difference lies in the way in which parents interact with their children. The researchers observed that, during symbolic play, which involves imagination, for example, pretending a banana is a telephone, parents asked the children more questions, and shared attention more often and for longer periods of time. She commented “What was really interesting was that, not only did parents ask more questions of their children, but they actually ended up in conversations more frequently. … Over time, the conversational nature of symbolic play proved to be predictive of more advanced language growth.”

The study also observed functional play, which involves the repetitive use of objects, such as throwing a ball or stacking blocks. This type of play did not show the same benefits. The researchers also noticed there were “really distinct differences in the way parents and children use language in different types of play”, and that, in functional play, parents use language which directs the child’s behaviour, for example, by telling them to get something, or what an object was.

The research concluded that functional play is not a predictor of higher levels of language learning.

According to Dr Quinn, one of the salutary findings from the study was that there is no need for parents to buy any expensive technology to enjoy the benefits of symbolic play, and that more can be gained by dragging out the contents of the pots and pans drawer. This is yet another take on the idea that the cardboard box can be more developmentally supportive than the expensive toy that came inside it.