| This preliminary investigation was to ascertain if differences in toy preferences and play behaviors exist between boys and girls with mild and moderate adaptive behavior delays as measured by the Adaptive Behavior Scale for Infants and Early Childhood. Each child was videotaped for two twenty minute sessions in a room which contained 16 toys. The toys were divided into three general groupings; Male-toys, Female-toys, and Neutral-toys. The toys were chosen from the authors's previous toy study. The specific toys in this investigation consisted of; a coffee pot dish set, a Barbie doll with clothes, a realistic child-size iron and a table top ironing board, a child-size broom and dust pan, two thick paged cardboard picture books, Disneyland Express Train with peg people, white paper and crayons, Playdoh, Legos, cars and trucks, a bubble lawnmower, realistic child-size tools and super hero dolls. The videotapes were analyzed by data collectors as to what types of play typologies (how the child manipulated the toys), as well as the quantity of play which existed with each toy. Toy frequencies and durations of play time were also calculated for each toy and over levels of delay and gender of groups. Several analyses of variance were preformed on the data to determine what type of interactions existed between sex and levels of delay. The data reflected no major differences in toy preferences although differences in rank ordering of the toy selections between children with mild and moderate delays did emerge as well as the amount of overall playtime with the toys. Differences also were noted in the toy selections between boys and girls in this investigation. Boys and girls with developmental delays in this investigation did not differ from boys and girls with no delays in development with regard to their toy preferences. The parents of the children in the investigation were requested to complete a Toy Survey, the results indicating that the primary concern of parents in selecting a toy is its educational quality. |
