Explain This, Explore That: A Study of Parent-Child Interaction in a Children's Museum

Overview

Journal Child Dev

Specialty Pediatrics

Date 2019 Mar 14

PMID 30866040

Citations 22

Authors

Aiyana K Willard

Justin T A Busch

Katherine A Cullum

Susan M Letourneau

David M Sobel

Maureen Callanan

Cristine H Legare

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Parents visiting a gear exhibit at a children's museum were instructed to encourage their children (N = 65; ages 4-6) to explain, explore, or engage as usual. Instructions led to different patterns of play at the exhibit: Encouragement to explain led to greater discussion of gear mechanisms, whereas encouragement to explore led to more time connecting gears. In the explain condition, parents' questions predicted their children's discussion and further testing of gears. Questions also predicted the amount of time children spent on a follow-up task. Parents' exploration predicted an increase in exploration by their children. These data indicate that minimal interventions impact parent-child interaction at a museum exhibit and that prompts to explore or explain uniquely influence parent and child behavior.

Citing Articles

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Caregiver and child question types during a museum interaction.

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Exploring the role of "in the moment" and global caregiver and child factors in caregiver questioning during shared book viewing.

Duong S, Bachman H, Votruba-Drzal E, Libertus M Cogn Dev. 2023; 66.

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