Parents Influence the Visual Learning Environment Through Children's Manual Actions

The present research studied children in the second year of life (N = 29, M_age = 21.14 months, SD = 2.64 months) using experimental manipulations within and between subjects to show that responsive parental influence helps children have more frequent sustained object holds with fewer switches between objects compared to when parents are either not involved or over-involved. Regardless of parental involvement, sustained holds were visually rich, based on the size, centeredness, and dominance of the held object relative to other objects. These findings are important because they suggest not only that the child's body creates visually rich scenes across play contexts but also that a responsive parent can increase the frequency of these visually rich and informative moments.