Mother-Child Play: Sequential Interactions and

the Relation between Maternal Beliefs and

Behaviors

Amy Melstein Damast

Albert Ehistein College of Medicine

Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda
New York University

Marc H. Bornstein
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

DAMAST, AMY MELSTEIX. T.\Mrs-LEMoxDA, CATHERINE S., and BOHNSTEIX, MARC H . Mother-Child
Play: Sequential Interactions and the Relation between Maternal Beliefs and Rehaviors. CHILD
DEVELOPMENT, 1996, 67, 17.52-1766. This investigation of mother and toddler play had 2 goals.
The primary goal was to examine the t>'pes of play mothers introduce in direct response to their
tpddlers' play. A secondary' and exploratory goal was to examine the relation between maternal
knowledge about child play and actual maternal play behaviors. 50 mothers and their 21-month-
old toddlers were observed at home duimg free play. Mother and child explorator>', nonsymbolic,
and symbolic play were coded. Sequential analyses revealed that mothers adjusted their play to
their children's play level by responding to their children with play that was either at the same
level or at a higher level than their children's play. Furthermore, mothers who were more
knowledgeable about early play development more often responded to their children's play by
introducing higher level play. These flndings suggest that mothers tend to play with their tod-
dlers in ways that might promote their child's development, and that mothers with more knowl-
edge about play development provide their children with appropriately challenging play interac-
tions.

In Western cultures, play often occurs dren's play? Second, if mothers do respond
in a social setting (Haight & Miller, 1993). differentially to their children's play, does
In the child's first few years, when new cog- mothers' knowledge about early play devel-
nitive and social skills are developing, a opment relate to mothers' actual play with
more knowledgeable social partner, like their children?
mother, is thought to facilitate the develop-
ment of more sophisticated play. Two re- In the first year, children learn about ob-
lated questions about maternal play behav- jects m their environment through explora-
iors were investigated in the present study, tion—they mouth, look at, and manipulate
First, are mothers sensitive to their chil- them (e.g., Belsky & Most, 1981; Bornstein
dren's play abilities, adjusting their own & Lamb, 1992; Fein, 1981; Nicolich, 1977;
play as a function ofthe level of their chil- Piaget, 1962). Near the end ofthe first year.

This article is based on a dissertation submitted by the flrst author m partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the doctoral degree in the Department of Psycholog\' at New York Univer-
sity. A.M.D. was supported by an N.Y.U. Predoctoral Fellowship; by research grants HD20559,
HD20807, and MH48915, by an IKTA Fellowship from the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development, and by post-doctoral fellowship grant T32HD07384 C T.-L was
supported by research grants HD20559. HD20807, and MH48915. M.H.B. was supported by
research grants HD20559 and HD20807. and by a Research Career Development Award
HD00521 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. A.M.D. thanks
the members of her dissertation committee, D. Ruble, D. Frye, H. Oster, and J. Daws, for
their helpful comments and suggestions. We also thank L. Baumwell, L. Cyphers, H. Comes, J.
Jankowski, R. Kahana-Kalman, S. Kazas, J. McClure, S. Rose, H. Ruff, and C Schmidt for their
assistance. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Amy Melstem Damast or Catherine
Tamis-LeMonda, Department of Applied Psychology', New York Universitv, 239 Creene Street-
5th Floor, New York, NY 10003.
[Child Development. 1996.67,1752-1766. © 1996 by the Society- for Research in Child Development, Inc.
All rights resented. 6o09-3920/96/6704-0026S01 00]
 Damast, Tamis-LeMonda, and Bornstein
children begin to engage in nonsymbolic
play as they examine the unique qualities
and functions of objects (e.g., pushing but-
tons on toy phones, stacking blocks, nesting
cups). During the second year, play more of-
ten takes on a nonliteral "as if" quality, as
children incorporate difFerent forms of sym-
bolic play into their repertoires (see Belsky
& Most, 1981; Bornstein & O'Reilly, 1993;
Fein, 1981; Fenson, Kagan, Kearsley, & Zel-
azo, 1976; Fenson & Ramsev, 1980;
McCune-Nicolich, 1981; Nicohch, 1977;
Schaefer, Gitlin, & Sandgrund, 1991; Tamis-
LeMotida & Bornstein, 1995; Tamis-
LeMonda, Damast, & Bornstein, 1994; Un-
gerer, Zelazo, Kearsley, & O'Leary, 1981;
Watson & Fischer, 1977).
\'\'hiile children's play increases in so-
phistication with age, at any one age chil-
dren exhibit different levels of play in differ-
ent social contexts (e.g., Fiese, 1990;
O'Connell & Bretherton, 1984). One possi-
ble explanation for this obsen'ation can be
found in Vygotsky's theory of the zone of
proximal development Vygotsky (1978) sug-
gested that children may function between
two levels of development—their actual de-
velopmental level and their potential devel-
opmental level (i.e., the level at which they
can function iii collaboration with a more ex-
perienced partner). Vygotsky and others
(e.g., RogofF, 1990; RogofF & Wertsch, 1984;
Wertsch, 1984, 1985; Zukow, 1986) suggest
that more advanced partners structure inter-
actions that exceed children's actual level
and approach children's potential level,
thereby helping to advance children's actual
level of development. For example, O'Con-
nell and Bretherton (1984) demonstrated
increases in children's play diversity (a
measure fqund to relate to later play
sophistication and intelligence) during col-
labora;tive play with mother as compared to
solitary play. Similarly, Fiese (1990) showed
tl^at toddlers spent a greater percentage of
their time in nonsjTnbolic and symbolic
play, and a lower percentage of their time in
exploratory piay, during mother-child play
than during play alone.
O'Connell and Bretherton {1984) re-
ported, that it is not simply a mother's pres-
ence, but her active participation, that ac-
counts for differences in children's play
across social contexts. Maternal physical at-
tention-focusing behaviors during interac-
tion have been found to predict greater ex-
ploratory competence (i.e., a weighted
composite measure of exploration, nonsym-
bolic play, and symbolic play) during the
1753
first and second years (Belsky, Goode, &
Most, 1980), as well as greater nonsymbolic
play (and less simple exploration) during
the toddler years (Fiese, 1990). Maternal
involvement and turn-taking behaviors are
negatively associated with simple explora-
tion during toddlerhood (Fiese, 1990). In
addition, Tamis-LeMonda and Bornstein
(1991) found that mothers' own play behav-
iors (i.e., gestural and verbal solicitations
and demonstrations of play activities) with
their children relate to their children's play
behaviors: Mothers who engage in more
symbolic play with their 13- and 20-month-
oids have toddlers who engage in more sym-
bolic play at these ages.
The literature on maternal respon-
siveness and child cognitive development
implies that contingency in maternal inter-
active behaviors might also be central to
children's play behaviors (e.g., Bakeman,
Adamson, Brown, & Eldridge, 1989; Baum-
well. Tamis-LeMonda, & Bornstein, 1996;
Beckwith & Cohen, 1989; Bornstein, 1989;
Bornstein & Tamis-LeMonda, 1989; Born-
stein, Tamis-LeMonda, et al., 1992; Olson,
Bates, & Bayles, 1984; Olson, Bayles, &
Bates, 1986). This literature demonstrates
that it is not merely the Frequency of positive
maternal interactive behaviors that Facili-
tates children's development, but rather
both the contingency (i.e., the temporal and
sequential relation) and the appropriateness
(i.e., the content, sophistication, or topic) oF
mothers' behaviors in the context oF the on-
going interaction. In other words, maternal
behaviors have a positive influence on chil-
dren's development when those behaviors
are both appropriate to and contingent on
children's behaviors.
With respect to the appropriateness oF
maternal play behaviors, developmental
studies suggest tliat the level and the Fre-
quency oF mothers' play relate to their chil-
dren's age and ability (Belsky et al., 1980;
Brooks-Gunn & Lewis, 1984^ Fiese, 1990;
Tamis-LeMonda & Bornstein, 1991). As a
group, mothers tend to suggest more sophis-
ticated play to children when their children
are older and more capable oF this type oF
play (Tamis-LeMonda & Bornstein, 1991).
In addition, mothers tend to support their
children's autonomy by offering fewer play
suggestions as children grow older (Belsky
et al., 1980; Fiese, 1990). Thus, it appears
that mothers are generally sensitive to their
children's play abilities in that they change
their behaviors appropriately with child age.
1754 Child Development
Little is known, however, about the con-
tingency (i.e., responsiveness) of maternal
play to children's play. Are mothers ad-
justing their play responsively to the indi-
vidual play behaviors of their children (i.e.,
on an episode-by-episode basis)? The first
goal of this investigation was to address this
Qiiestion. Our expectation was that mothers
woiild respond appropriately and contin-
gently to their children's play on an episode-
by-episode basis.
Within the context of group sensitivity
to child play behaviors, we expected to find
variability in the extent to which individual
mothers adjust their play to their children's
play. The second, exploratory goal ofthis in-
vestigation was, therefore, to examine
whether rnothers' ability to respond sensi-
tively on an episode-by-episode basis to
their children's play is, at least in part, ex-
plained by their knowledge ofthe progres-
sive nature of children's play. It has been
suggested that mothers' knowledge about
eertain developing abilities in children re-
lates to their behaviors with their children
(e,g., Goodnow, 1988; Goodnow & Collins,
1990; Hunt & Paraskevopoulos. lOSO; Ko-
phanska, 198|0; McGltlicuddy-DeLisi, 1982;
Miller, 198S'. Sigel, McGiliicuddy-DeLisi, &
Goodnow, 1992; Tamis-LeMonda et al.,
1!J94). In a comprehensive review of paren-
tal knowledge of development. Miller (1988)
note^ that parents are gene .rally accurate in
their knowledge of developmental mile-
stones, and tliat variatioi:i among parents in
the aepuraey of their knowledge is pre-
dictive (albeit modestly) of their behaviors
wifh their children. Accordingly, we as-
sessed the a^ccuracy of mothers' knowledge
ofthe relative difficultj,' of'vrarious chilcl play
acts and asked whether this knowledige ac-
pounts for variation among mothers in their
responsive play behaviors.
Method
Participants
Fifty mothers (M age = 33 years, SD =
3.4) and their firstborn, 21-month-oId chil-
dren (Mage = 651 days, SD = 8.5; 26 males,
24 females) participated in this study. Fami-
lies were recruited from a pediatric unit in
a large urban university hospital and from
Ioeal obstebic groups. All children had un-
1 The entire home visit consisted of four videotaped sessions occumng in a standardized
order- 10 min ofthe child playing alone with a standard set of toys, 10 mm of mother-child tree
play with another set of toys, 10-15 min of experimenter-child play using a third set of toys, and
45 min of naturalistic interaction (during which mdtfeers were free to do whatever they pleased
with or without their childien).
eventful perinatal histories and were
healthy and free of any known develop-
mental delays during the course ofthe study.
They were all from middle- and upper-
middle-class intact families (M = 57.7, SD
= 7.6, on the Hollingshead Four Factor In-
dex of Social Status, 1975; Gottfried, 1985),
with 90% of mothers hiiving completed 4 or
more years of college. At the 21-month visit,
45 of the 50 were only children, one had a.
lO-month-old sibling, and four had a sibling
younger than 4months.
Play at Home
Procedures.—Dyads were visited m
their homjas at a time convenient to mother
and child and when only the two would be
present. Data from a 10-min mother-child
free-play session, part ofa larger home visit,
are the focus ofthe present report.^ Mother
and child were filmed while playing with a
standard set of toys that included cups,
plates, spoons, teapot and cover, doll, baby
blanket, baby battle, bus with removable
peopie, sponge, telephone, blocks, and a set
of nesti:ng cups. The toy set represented ob-
jects With whieh all children were familiar
in their everyday routines and which lend
tiiemselves to a variety of age-appropriate
actMties. Each mother was instructed to sit
with her child and behave as she normally
would when she and her child played. In
additioii, mothers were asked to ignore the
expenmenter''s presence to the extent possi-
ble. Mothers were told that they could use
any or all of the toys provided, but that the
chiM's own ttoys should not be included in
die play session.
Coding.—Mother play and child play
were fioded from Tiddeotapes using an object-
centered, event-sampling procedure. Both
partaers' play was coded using; the mutually
eiclusive codes of exploration, nonsymbolic
play, and symbolic play; during times when
chiiireri were not engaged in one of these
three types of play for 2 or more seconds,
theywere assigned a code af off-task. Mater-
nal play could be verbal (e.g., saying "drink
some tea"), gestural (e.g., pretending to pour
from a teapot into a cup and handing the cup
to tlae qhild to drink), or a combination ofthe
(eig., saying "let's drink tea" and pre-
l to (feink from a teaeup). The onset
i occurred with the start ofa
 Damast, Tamis-LeMonda, and Bornstein
mother's vocalization (e.g., "Call daddy on
the phone") in the case of verbal or verbal-
gestural play, or with the start of her gesture
(e.g., handing an object to her child, pointing
to an object) or demonstration (e.g., pushing
buttons on a telephone) in the case of ges-
tural play. Children's play was always based
on gestures accompanied by visual regard
and could occur with or without vocaliza-
tions. For example, if a child pretended to
drink from a teacup, the child's action was
coded as a single, self-directed symbolic act,
whether or not the child said "drink tea."
Children's play was coded from the onset of
the child's regard. Children's voadizations
in the absence of gestures were not coded
as play to avoid confounding symbolic play
ability with language ability.
For both mother and child, play events
terminated when the player looked at an-
other object, engaged in a thematically unre-
lated action vvith the same object, or tumed
attention from the toys altogether for a pe-
riod of 2 or more seconds. As mentioned,
when a child directed attention away from
the toys for 2 or more seconds, the behavior
was coded as off-task.
Based on the above mother and child
play codes, sequences of play acts were ob-
tained by assigning each maternal play act a
code indicating the child's activity' prior to
or at the onset of the act. For example, if
mother s^id "talk on the phone" after the
child manipuiated the phone, the mother's
play was coded as symbolic play preceded
by child exploration. Likewise, if mother put
the lid on the teapot while the child was
"drinldng" from a teacup, the motlier's play
was coded as nonsymbolic play preceded by
a child symbolic act.^ Due to the sequential
nature of interaction, coders made one pass
thrpugh the videotapes, coding both mother
and toddler play togettier. Coders were en-
couraged to stop and replay segments of in-
teraction to maximize coding accuracy.
Interrater agreement.—Interrater reli-
abilities were obtained by having two coders
independently score ail mother and child
play behaviors on 10% ofthe sampie for the
entire 10-min session. A.s a first step to as-
sessing interrater agreement, we examined
how often coders agreed on the identifica-
tion of an event, calculated for children's
This code system does not imply that the child is always the "initiator" and the mother
always the "respondent" in the interaction. Sequences provide no information conceming which
partner established the topic focus; instead, they describe only how a mother responded to a
particular behavior on the part ofthe child.
1755
and mothers' play separately: percent agree-
ment was 84% for both child and mother
play events. For play acts on which both
coders agreed, reliabilities were calculated
for the level of child play (i.e., for all ehild
acts, whether or not mother responded), the
level of maternal play, and the level of the
child act that preceded maternal play in the
sequence (i.e., only child acts to which
mother responded). Cohen's kappa was used
as a conservative measure of reliability
(Bakeman & Gottman, 1986). Kappas were
good to excellent for each code: K = .67 for
child play level (range = .62 to .76), K = .77
for maternal play level (range = .58 to .95),
and K. = .66 for preceding child level (range
= .54 to .73).
Maternal Knowledge of Play
Mothers' knowledge of child play was
assessed using a questionnaire mailed to
them 1 week prior to the home visit and col-
lected by the experimenter at the comple-
tion of the visit. The play activities on the
questionnaire represented one example of
each ofthe levels of a hypothesized 24-level
play scale (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 1994; Ap-
pendix A). This 24-level play scale was de-
veloped by integrating previousfindingsex-
tant in the literature in order to create a more
comprehensive description of early develop-
mental progressions in play (see Belsky &
Most, 1981; Fenson et al., 1976; Fenson &
Ramsey, 1980; McCune-Nicolich, 1981; Ni-
colich, 1977; Tamis-LeMonda & Bornstein,
1991; Ungerer et al., 1981; Watson &
Fischer, 1977). Seven important transitions
were incorporated into the scale: (1) the
transition from simple exploration to non-
symbolic play; (2) the transition from non-
symbolic play to sy-mbolic play; (3) the tran-
sition from seif-directed pretense to
other-directed pretense; (4) the transition
from animate-directed pretense to inani-
mate-directed pretense; (5) the transition
from single acts of pretense to sequenced
acts of pretense; (6) the transition from
agentive pretense to vicarious pretense; and
(7) the transitionfromliteral pretense to sub-
stitutive pretense. Moreover, there is some
consensus that eertain transitions occur be-
fore others; for example, the transition from
self-directed to other-directed play is ex-
pected to occur before the transition from
literal to substitutive play, on account ofthe
1756 Child Development
more complex cognitive demands of substi-
tutive play (i.e., substituting one object for
another requires decontextualization from
the object, whereas other-directed play does
not). Additionally, the scale incorporates the
notion that combinations of components of
play are more difficult to master than are sin-
gle components of play. For exainpie, pre-
tending to feed a doH with a block (Le., a
combination of pretense toward an inani-
mate otiier and substitutive pretense) is
jmore difficult than pretending to feed a doll
with a toy bottle (i.e., a single act of pretense
toward an inanimate other),
preliminary' analyses support the hy-
pothesized ordering of these 24 levels of
play (Tamis-LeMonda, Albright, Damast,
Fox, & Bornstein, 1995). In a sample of 108
21-month-old cMtdren (including the 50
children in the present study) playing alone
with the same standard set of toys, the pres-
ence or absence of each ofthe 24 play levels
waS coded. The play levels were then rank-
ordered based ofli Uie percentage of children
engaging in each level. The linearity ofthe
hypothesized scale was tested by comparing
these rank-orderings with the ordering in
the proposed scale using Kendairs tau. The
tau was signifiGant, tau = .72, p < .001, indi-
CE^ting substaiitial agreement between the
hypothesized play scale and the order ob-
served during toddlers' solitary play.
Examples ofthe 2,4 play levels were pre-
seiited in random order on the question-
naire, (The labels of the play levels that ap-
pear in Appendix A were not provided.)
Mothers were asfed to rarik the 24 different
play activities iix order of increasing diffi-
cillti,', wfith 1 being the easiest and 24 the
most difficult
Results
Results are discussed in the following
order. f;irst, base rates of the three levels of
maternal play, the four levels of child play,
and the rates with which these child levels
precedecl maternal play are presented and
analvzed using analyses of variance. Second,
analyses of the sequences of mother and
child piay behaviors are reported. The goal
of these analyses was to describe dependen-
cies of maternal play on preceding child
play. Finally, relations between maternal
knowledge of child play development and
observed maternal play are reported. For
these analyses, measures of the accuracy of
materiial knowledge of progressions in child
play and specific patterns of maternal re-
sponsive play were related to one another.
For each set of analyses, dyads that did
not have complete data on all pertinent vari-
ables were not included. For example, in
ANOVAs investigating matenial nonsym-
bolic play, mothers who did not engage in
nonsymbolic play were necessarily ex-
cluded. As a consequence, reported results
are based on samples of 42 to 50 dyads. Prior
to analysis, data were examined for extreme
bivariate outliers using scatterplots. Cook's
D, Stud.enti2ed Deleted Residual, and Le-
verage statistics. Four dya:ds whose individ-
ual data altered the significance ofthe corre-
lations (either positively or negatively)
between maternal knowledge about play
arid ma^ternal play behaviors were excluded
from tfte correlation analyses (Judd &
MeClelland, 1989). Finally, because the
AMO'teAs reVealed no consistent differences
in the base rates of maternal and child play
by chiid gerider, and there were no gender
differetiees in any ofthe sequential analyses,
results are presented for the entire sample.
Descriptive Analyses of Base Rates of
Mother and Child Play
The mean frequencies and proportions
(number of maternal play acts at each level
of play divided by the total number of mater-
nal plaj' acts, calculated separately for each
mpthelr) of tlie three levels pf maternal play
are presented in Table 1. A within-subjects
rejaeatfed-measures ANOVA identified sig-
nificMt differences in the base rates (i.e.,
frequebiCies) of the differerit play levels, F(2,
98) = lCP.94,p < .001. Specifically, mothers
pidtflptfid more symbolic play than either
expiorkton or nonsymbolic play, is(49) =
Xi.64 aitd 10.67, respectively, ps < .001.
They showed no difference in their rates of
esplofation and nonsynabolic play, f(49) <
I. (Ptfesnits for all descriptive analyses were
identicsil when transfortned proportions
were used as the dependent measure.)
The mean frequencies and proportions
(nurnt>er of child play acts- at each play level
diyi&d by the total rmmber of child play
acts, paJeuiated separately for each child) of
the three childi play levels and off-task epi-
sodes are also presented in Table 1. These
rates rgpi-esent the tdtal number of child acts
diujdg Ilie play session (iiot just the subset
of chiilcl acts to which mcfjhars responded). A
within-subjects repeated-fioeasures ANOVA
e differences in rates, F(3, 147) =
, p < .001^ Child(eii engaged in explo-
 Damast, Tamis-LeMonda, and Bornstein 1757
TABLE 1
BASE R \ T E S OF MATERNAL PL.4IY AND C H I L D ACTIVITIES BY LEVEL

Level of Play Mean Range SD

Mother:
Exploratory 9.5 (.20) 0-24 (.00-.46) 5.0 (.10)
Nons>'mbolic 8.8 (.18) 0-27 (.00-.52) 6.6 (.12)
Symbolic 30.8 (.63) 4-63 (.14-.93) 12.7 (.16)
Child:
Explorator\' 35 9 (.43) 13-51 (.24-.59) 8.4 (.08)
Nonsymbolic 11.8 (.14) 0-30 f.00-.28) 7.4 (.08)
Symbolic 18.2 (.22) 5-43 (.07-.40) 7.5 (.08)
OfF-task 18 2 (.22) 10-.32 (.11-.35) 5.4 ( 05)
NOTE —Proportions in parentheses.

ration more often than they were off-task or
engaged in nonsymbolic or symbolic play,
ts(49) = 13.50, 17.89, and 11.60, ps < .001,
respectively. (This may occur because chil-
dren often orient to and explore objects be-
fore engaging in nonsymbolic and symbolic
play.) In addition, children were off-task or
engaged in symbolic play more frequently
than they engaged in nonsymbolic play,
ts(49) = 5.04 and 3.93, ps < .001, respec-
tively. There was no difference in the rates
at which children were off-task or engaged
in symbolic play, f(49) < 1.
The mean frequencies and proportions
(number of maternal piay acts in response to
each level of child play divided by the total
number of maternal play acts, calculated
separately for each dyad) of mothers' play
responses to each level of child play are pre-
sented in Table 2. Maternal play responses
were collapsed across level of maternal play
in order to question what mothers were re-
sponding to in their children's play, exclu-
sive of how they were responding. A within-
subjects repeated-measures ANOVA
indicated a difference in the number of
times mothers responded to the different
levels of child play, F(3, 147) = 42.14, p <
.001. Specifically, greater numbers of mater-
nal play responses were offered when chil-
dren were either off-task or exploring than
when they were engaged in either nonsym-
bolic or symbolic play, ^(49) = 9.67, p <
.001. Additionally, mothers responded more
frequently when children were engaged in
exploration than when they were off-task or
engaged in nonsymbolic or symbolic play,
ts{49) = 4.12, 11.17, and 6.05, respectively,
ps < .001. Mothers also responded more fre-
quently when children were off-task than
when they were eagaged in nonsymbolic or
symbolic play, ts{49) = 8.30 and 2.72, ps <
.001 and .01, respectively. Lastly, mothers
responded more frequently when children
were engaged in symbolic play than when
they were engaged in nonsymbolic play,
t(49) = 3.95, p < 001.
The Sequential Nature of Mother-Child
Play Interactions
Mother-child play sequences were ana-
lyzed by first calculating transitional proba-
bilities for all combinations of the three lev-
els of maternal play (i.e., exploration,
nonsymbolic play, symbolic play) and four

TABLE 2
M.\TEHNAL PLAY BY LEVEL OF PRECEDING CHILD PL^Y ACT

Level of Preceding
Child Play Act Mean Range SD
Off-task" . 12.6 (.29) 3-28 (.12-.53) 5.5 (.10)
Exploratory 17 0 (.38) .3-39 (.15-.61) 7.7 (.10)
Nonsymbolic 56 (.12) 0-16 (.00-33) 4.4 (.08)
Symbolic 9.7 (.22) 0-25 (.00-..50) 6.1 (.12)
NOTE —Proportions in parentheses
" OfF-task episodes iire included as child play acts because they, like
child play acts, represent children's attention at the time mothers choose
to o£fer play suggestions.
1758 Chad Development
levels of preceding child play (i.e., off-taslc,
exploration, norisymbolic play, symbolic
play), using the formulas and procedures de-
tailed by Bakeman and Gottman (1986).
These transitional probabilities were then
converted to z scores, and the z scores were
used as dependent variables in subsequent
analyses. Z scores control for the base rates
of both the "given" and "target" behaviors.
Table 3 provides descriptive data of the fre-
quencies of the 12 child play—mother play
sequences.
Z scores were used to examine differ-
ences between t t e observed rates ofthe se-
queiices and their expected rates given the
observed base rate probabilities of the indi-
vidual "given" and "target" events (i.e.,
Bakeman & Gottman's, 1986, "first-order"
mode! for generating expected probabili-
ties). For exampie, a large positive z score
associated with a particular sequence would
sign!ffy a greater occurrence of that sequence
than would be expected by chance given the
base rates of both the child level an^ the
mother play level, a large negative z score
assoiiiated with the same sequence would
indicate a lower probability ofthis sequence
than vvould be expected by chance.
J h e dependency of mother play on
child play was examined in two ways. First,
using one-sample t tests (witli the mean z
scoris for each sequence as the dependent
variable), the probability of each child play-^
mother play sequence was compared with
its expected probability (i.e., chance).^ For
example, the probability' of maternal sym-
bolic play subsequent to a ehild engaging in
exploration, adjusted for the probabilities of
both child exploration and materrial sym-
bolic play, was cpnjpflretd With the simple
probability of maternal syrtibolic play (i.e.,
the probability of matem^ synibolic play oc-
curring by chance). Thus, Hie effect of each
child play level on the probability of each
maternal play level was determined. In ad-
dition, for each level of maternal play, tlie
probabilities of the four child play-mother
piay sequences were also ccjHipared to one
another. For example/the lifcelihood of ma-
ternal symbolic play given ehiid exploration
was compared to the likelihood of maternal
symboiic^play given child ndnsy-mbolic play.
To do so, z scores for all aftbie sequences of
maternal play and clillci preceding level
were entered into a 3 (maternal piay level)
^ Comparisons to chance can also be made by pooling the data across dyads, and calculating
transitional probabiUties and their associated z scores from the pooled data. Both approaches
provided essentially the same results.
X 4 (preceding child play level) within-
subjects repeated-measures ANOVA to com-
pare the difference from expected probabil-
ity' ofthe differen.t sequences. This ANOVA
indicated ^ significant interaction of mater-
nal play level x preceding child play level,
F(6, 258) = 33.73, p < .001. These results
are presented in Table 4.
Figure 1 displays z scores for each child
play-mather plag sequence. When compar-
ing the four maternal exploratory z scores to
cbaiice, maternal exploratory play was pre-
ceded by child ofF-task episodes signifi-
cantly more often than would be expected
by chance, f(49) = 8.43, p < .001, and it was
preceded by child exploration, nonsymbolic
play, and symbolic play less often than
would be expected by chance, <s(49) =3.28,
2.22, and 5.72, ps < .01, .05, and .001, re-
spectively. Consequently, when comparing
the foiir maternal exploratory play s scores to
each otfeer, child off-task episodes increased
the likelihood of maternal exploratory piay
sigiiificaatly more than did child explora-
tion, iioiisj'rnbolic play, and symbolic play,
*(48| = 7.m,t{44) = 6.60, and *(47) = 8.64,
respectively, ps < .001.
When comparing the four maternal non-
symbolic play z scores to chance, maternal
nonsymbolic play was preceded by child
nonsyiabolic play significantly more often
than would be expected by chance, f(49) =
6.43. p < -OOl, by ehild symbolic play sig-
nificantly less often than expected by
chance, t(49) = 8.89, p < .001, and by off-
task episodes and exploration at rates ex-
pected by chance, ts(49) =5= .85 and 1.50, N.S.
Consequently, when comparing the four ma-
ternal nonsymbolic play z scores to each
other, child nonsymbolic play increased the
likelihood of maternal nonsymbolic play sig-
nificantly more than did child off-task epi-
sodes., esploration, and symbolic play, ts(44)
= aiiT, 4.SO, and 3.86, respectively, ps <
.001.
When comparing the four maternal sym-
bolic play z scores to chance, maternal sym-
bolic play was preceded by child symbolic
play significantlv more often than would be
exp'ected by chance, *(49) = 9.62, p < .001,
by off-task episodes and nonsymbolic play
significantly less often than would be ex-
pected by chance, *st49) = 6.26 and 4.37,
ps < .001, respectively, and by child explo-
 Damast, Tamis-LeMonda, and Bornstein 1759
TABLE 3
MATERNAL PLAY BY LEVEL AXD BY LEVEL OF PRECEDING
CHILD PLAY

Level of Maternal Play and

Level of Preceding Child Play Mean Range SD
Maternal exploratory play;
Child off-task ' 4.4 0-13 3.1
Child exploration 2.8 0-8 2.3
Child nonsjnnbolie play 0.8 0-.5 1.2
Child symbolic play 0.8 0-4 1.1
Maternal nonsymbolic play.
Child off-task 2.1 0-7 17
Child exploration 3.3 0-16 34
Child nonsymbolic play 2.2 0-9 2.5
Child symbolic play 0.6 0-3 0.8
Maternal symbolic play:
Child off-task 6.2 1-16 3.6
Child exploration 10.6 2-23 .5.2
Child Bonsymbolic play 2.6 0-10 2.5
Child symbolic play 83 0-24 5.6

TABLE 4 ration at a rate expected by chance, f(49) =

DiFFEREXCES IN Z SCORES RY M A T E F X A L 1.32, N.S. Gonsequently, when comparing
LEVEL AXD BY PRECEDING CHILD LEVEL the four maternal symbolic play z scores to
each other, child s\TTibolic play increased
Maternal Play Level the likelihood of maternal symbolic play sig-
and Comparison of nificantly more than did child off-task epi-
Preceding Child Level n* t p sodes, exploration, and nonsymbolic play,
t(48) = 9.71, t{4o) = 9.57, and t(48) = 6.31,
Exploratory: respectively, ps < .001.
O-T vs. EXP 49 7.30 .001
O-T vs. NS 45 6.60 .001 In summary, sequential analyses re-
O-T vs. SYM 48 8.64 .001 vealed noteworthy patterns with respect to
EXP vs. NS 45 -0.49 both increases and decreases in the likeli-
EXP vs. SYM 48 180 .078 hood of certain levels of maternal play given
NS vs. SYM 45 2.97 .005
Nonsymbolic: certain levels of child play. When children
O-T vs. EXP 49 -1.42 were off-task or engaged in exploration, the
O-Tvs. NS 45 -4.80 .001 greatest increase in probability (although
O-T vs. SYM 48 4.35 .001 not always a significant increase above the
EXPvs. NS 45 -3.86 .001 rate expected by chance) occurred at a ma-
EXP vs. SYM 48 5.92 .001 ternal play level one level higher than chil-
NS vs. SYM 45 9.37 .001 dren's play level (i.e., mothers suggested ex-
SjTnbolic: ploration when children were off-task, and
O-T vs. EXP 50 -4.95 .001 nonsymbolic plav when children were ex-
O-Tvs. NS 46 -1.45 ploring). In contrast, when children engaged
O-T vs. SYM 49 -9.71 .001
EXP vs. NS 46 4.23 .001 in nonsymbolic and symbolic play, the great-
EXP vs. SYM 49 -6.31 .001 est increase in probability occurred at a ma-
NS vs. SYM 46 -9.57 .001 ternal play level that matched the preceding
child activity (i.e., mothers suggested non-
NOTE —O-T off-task; EXP. exploraticn, NS: non- symbolic play when children engaged in
symbolic play, SYM- symbolic play nonsymbolic pla}/, and symbolic play when
^ n for each analysis vanes as a result of tbe absence
of certain sequences in lndiwdual dyads children engaged in symbolic play). Mater-
nal play that was either lower or much
higher (i.e., three levels higher) than chil-
dren's ongoing play decreased in likelihood.
Exploratory analyses were conducted
next to determine whether mothers were re-
sponding to their children's nonsymbolic
1760 Child Development
z~score
1.50 r
1.00
0.50
0.00
-0.50
-1.00
-1.50
Exploratory
Maternal Play Level
^B Child Off-task
i -I Chiid Nonsymbolic
• p < 06, " p < 01, " • p < 001
FIG 1.—Maternal play level by child play level
and symbolic play with play that was lower
than, equal to, or higher than their children's
preceding play act within the nons^inbolic
and symbolic play categories (see Appendix
A). Specifically, for each maternal nonsym-
bolic play act that followed a child nonsym-
bolic play act, and for each maternal sym-
bolic play act that followed a child symbolic
play act, both maternal play and preceding
child play were coded using the levels ofthe
24-level play scale. Mothers' play was then
recoded as being lower than, equal to, or
higher than the level of the preceding child
play. (Interrater reliabilities, using the cod-
ings of the same five dyads as above, were
again good to excellent: K = 1.00 for non-
symbolic levels and K = .63 for symbolic
levels.) For example, if a child stirred with
a toy spoon in a cup and the mother stirred
with another spoon in another cup, she was
matching the child's overall level of sym-
bolic play as well as the more specific sym-
bolic act of self-directed single act pretense.
On the other hand, if a child stirred with a
toy spoon in a cup and the mother suggested
that the child "feed the dolly," the mother
was matching the child's overall level of
symbolic play, but vvas prompting the child
to a higher level within symbolic play by
suggesting that the child include an inani-
mate other in a sequence of two different
pretense schemes. The frequencies of each
Nonsymboiic Symbolic
Child Exploratory
Child Symbolic
of these three categories of response (i.e.,
lower than, equal to, or higher than the pre-
ceding child play level), within nonsymbohc
and symbolic play separately, were summed
and used in subsequent analyses.
Within-subjects repeated-measures
ANOVAs were used to identify differences
in the frequencies of lower, equal, or higher
maternal nonsymbolic and symbolic play be-
haviors separately. For both maternal non-
symbolic and symbolic play, there were sig-
nificant main effects, F(2, 98) = 3.61, p <
.05, and F(2, 98) = 34.50, p < .001, respec-
tively. Mothers were more likely to suggest
nonsymbolic or symbolic play at levels
equal to or higher than the level of their chil-
dren's preceding nonsymbolic or symbolic
play, rather than lower than the preceding
level of child play, ts(49) = 2.44 and 2.25,
ps < .05, and ts(49) = 6.95 and 8.97, ps <
.001, respectively. There were no significant
differences in the rates at which mothers
suggested nonsymbolic or symbolic play at
the same level as their children's preceding
nonsymbolic or symbolic play or at a higher
level than the preceding child play level,
ts{4Q) < 1.
Relations between Maternal Knowledge
about Play and Maternal Play
Maternal play summary measure.—To
examine relations between maternal knowl-
 Damast, Tamis-LeMonda, and Bornstein
edge of play and maternal play, a siagle mea-
sure of maternal play was created. The goal
was to create a measure of play to index
mothers' attempts to "scaffold" their chil-
dren's play (i.e., attempts to help tlieir chil-
dren reach their potential level of perfor-
mance). For each dyad, the mean of the
transitional probabilities of seven play se-
quences was calculated; these sequences
are represented in Appendix B.* Sequences
were selected to represent instances in
which mothers responded with play at levels
that were higher than the level of the pre-
ceding child activity. Thus, higher values on
this measure indicate a greater tendency of
mothers to engage in more advanced levels
of play relative to their children's own play.
The theoretical basis of this measure was
Kuhn's (1972) finding that children are moti-
vated to perform at advanced stages (in Pia-
getian tasks) when they witnessed behaviors
performed at stages higher than Ilieir own
stage, As a group, mothers offered 45% (SD
= 7%) of their play responses at levels
higher than the preceding child play level.
Accuracy of maternal knowledge of
play progressions.—Because the task of
ranking 24 different child play acts might be
difficult for mothers, the first set of analyses
investigated how accurate mothers, as a
group, were in their knowledge of early play
development (see also Tamis-LeMonda et
al., 1994). Correlation analyses revealed
strong agreement between both ithe mean
and modal maternal rankings ofthe play acts
and the hypothesized play scale, rs = .88 for
both analyses. Further analyses explored the
accuracy of mothers' knowledge ofthe tran-
sitions in play overviewed above. Specifi-
cally, the percentage of mothers ranking the
more difficult play act as higher than the less
difficult act (e.g., the percentage of mothers
ranking other-directed pretense higher than
self-directed pretense) was compared to
chance using z scores. These analyses again
revealed that mothers are accurate in their
knowledge of play development. Mothers
ranked exploratory play as easier ilian non-
symbolic play, and nonsymbolic play as eas-
ier th^n symbolic play. Moreover, within
symbolic play, mothers ranked pretending
toward self as easier than pretending toward
Other, single acts of pretense as easier than
Transitional probabilities were used, rather than frequencies or unconditional probabili-
ties, because they control for tlie base rate of the child act. This was considered necessary
because certain levels of toddler play force mothers' prompts to he higher than child play. For
example, when children are off-+ask, any maternal prompt is necessarily higher than children's
play.
1761
sequenced acts of pretense, literal pretense
as easier than substitutive pretense, and
agentive pretense as easier than vicarious
pretense. (All p values for z scores ranged
from .05 to .001.)
A measure of the overall accuracy of
each mother's rankings was generated by
correlating her ranking of the 24 play acts
with the hypothesized play scale. As a
group, individual mothers' rankings of these
acts correlated highly with the empirical
scale, mean r = ,69, SD = .16. There was,
however, substantial individual variation in
these correlations, with scores ranging from
.09 to .91.
Correlation between maternal knowl-
edge about play and. maternal play sum-
mary measure.— To examine the relation
between maternal knowledge of play and
observed maternal play, mothers' accuracy
in ranking play was correlated with the ma-
ternal play summary measure. Mothers
whose rankings of play corresponded more
closely with the hypothesized scale re-
sponded to their children's play with play
that was higher in level than the preceding
child play level, n41) = .33, p < .05. In addi-
tion, although four of the seven sequences
included in this score involved mothers'
suggesting symbolic play to their children,
maternal knowledge of play development
was unrelated to mothers' overall frequency
of suggesting symbolic play, r(41) = .10,
N.S. Thus, maternal knowledge about play
is related to the specific coordination of the
levels of mothers' and children's play, rather
than mothers' overall level of play.
Discussion
The present study investigated the level
and contingency of maternal play on chil-
dren's play, as well as the possibility that the
accuracy of mothers' rankings of the diffi-
culty of child play acts accounts, in part, for
the content of mothers' play. Results indi-
cated that mothers are sensitive to the level
of their children's play, adjusting the level
of their own play to their children's play in
both a macroanalytic manner (i.e., consider-
ing base rate frequencies and unconditional
probabilities) and a microanalytic manner
(i.e., considering episode-by-episode se-
1762 Ghild Development
quences and transitional prohabilities). In
addition, mothers who are more knowledge-
able about play development tend to suggest
play to their children at a more sophisticated
level than their children's ongoing play.
evaluating the generalizability of
these findings, it may be important to con-
sider charact:eristics of the sample particular
to this investiga^tion. Specifically, the moth-
ers who participated in this study were
somewhat older, more educated, and of a
higher socioeconomic background. Maternal
knowledge of and sensitivity to play may dif-
fer in younger mothers, less educated moth-
ers, arid mothers from other socioeconomic
or cultural backgrounds.
From a macroanalytie perspective,
mothers are sensitive to the level of sophisti-
cation of their ehildren's play acflvities, and
they adjust the frequency and the level of
their play responses based on the level of
their children's play. Across the play session
as a whole^ motliers suggest play to their
children most frequently at the overall level
of their children's play; both toddlers and
motliers engage in more symbolic play than
noasj'mbolic play. In addition, mothers offer
significantly more play resporises when their
children are engaged in less sophisticated
activities (i.e., when off-task or engaged in
px|pibration). In contrast, when their chil-
dren are engaged in aiore sophisticated ac-
tivities (i.e., in norisyriibolic or symbolic
play), mothers offer fewer play suggestions.
These findings concur with other evi-
dence of parental sensitivity to develop-
mental level and parental support of auton-
omy in ehildren. As described by Macceby
(1984), parents generally appear to be sensi-
tiye to the developmental abilities of their
ciiiidren, adjusting their own actions, over
time, to accommodiafe their children's
emerging a(bij:it;ies. Maccoby suggested that
paretafaJ nijenitoring of ehildren's nidment-
by-moment; behaviors is firequent during in-^
fancy and tfjdidlerhodd/ Specific exi3«nE>les of
parents' ad|iistiHg their behavior across time
are (Siyident: in a variety of parentirigd0m:ains
(Bornstein. Tal, et al., 1992; lEeckhausen,
1987; O'Cdnneti & Brethertbii, }Mk Pawjnt
Moss GoBselin:; & St;-ta«.rtent: 1993; logofi;
Ellis, & Gardner, i§M; Tamis-LeiMonda &
Bornstein, 199J). For instance, mothers tend
to show decreases iin particular interactions
and increases in others as their children
grow dlder^attd imore co!rapeteirt(e.f., Belsky
et al.. I980;'fieirnstein & Taniis-LeMonda,
199b; Rogoff, Malkin, & Gilbride, 1984).
Data from the present study advance our un-
derstanding ofthis dynam^ic by demonstrat-
ing that mothers also adjust the frequency of
their suggestions on an episode-by-episode
basis at any one age. That is, they provide
more play suggestions when their children
are engaged in "less cornpetent" (i.e., off-
task and simple exploratory) behaviors, and
they provide fewer play suggestions when
their children are engaged in "more compe-
tent" (i.e., nonsymbolic and symbolic play)
behaviors.
From a microanalytic perspective,
mothers appear to adjust the level of their
play contingent on their children's play,
thereby functioning withiri their children's
"?:One of proximal deyelopment" (ZPD; Ro-
goff & Wertsch, 1984; Vygotsky, 1978).
When children are engaged in less sophisti-
cated activities, mothers are likely to re-
spond with play at one level higher than
their children's level. Mothers attempt to fo-
cus their children's attention to the toys
\¥hen their children are oJEf-task, and (though
not significantly above chance levels) to en-
courage their children to engage in nonsym-
bolie play when they are involved in simple
objed manipulation. Thus, at these times
mothtirs appear to use their play to "chan-
nel" their children's behavior toward focus
on toys and more sophisticated levels of jalay
(Hodapp, Goldfield, & Boyatzis, 1^84;
TroutiTian, Hazen, & Cook, 1992). When
children are engaged in more sophisticated
play, mothers are more likely to match their
oVvn play to the level of their children's play,
or to engage in higher levels of play within
the broader categories of nonsymbolic and
sjTuboIic play. This strategj^^ enables moth-
ers to elaborate on their children's behaviors
at the same level.
Decreases in the likelihood of certain
maternal play behaviors in response to cer-
tain toddler behaviors also support the no-
tion that mothers generally function within
their children's "zone of proximal develop-
ment " Decreases in the likelihood of mater-
nal exploiatory play when preceded by child
nonsvmbolie and child symbolic play, and
decreases in the likelihood of maternal non-
symbolic play when preceded by child sym-
bolic play, indicate that mothers tend wot to
respoiid to their children's play with play
that is lower in level (i.e., below their chil-
dren's ZPD). The same pattem holds true
when ea;a.minin.g trends within nonsymbolic
and within symbolic play; mothers tend to
make suggestions that are equal or higher in
level, rtot lower in level, than their chil-
 Damast, Tamis-LeMonda, and Bornstein
dren's play. A decrease in the likelihood of
maternal exploratory play when preceded by-
child exploration suggests that motlbers tend
not to orient their children to a toy when
their children are already examining it, or
shift their children's focus from one toy to
another. In addition, although mothers en-
gaged in more symbolic play than nonsym-
bolic play across the play session, they did
not tend to suggest symbolic play in re-
sponse to their children's nonsymbolic play
or off-task behaviors. Overall, these results
might suggest that mothers' play behaviors
with their children serve to scaHbld their
children's play on an episode-by-episode ba-
sis and across the entire play session. Fur-
thermore, the data suggest that children's
dyadic play behaviors guide their mothers'
participation in play interactions; mothers
appear to use their children's play cues (e.g.,
object focus, actions) as a framework for their
own play behaviors with their children.
Beyond the empirical contribution, the
present investigation expands the extant
play literature methodologically. The use of
sequential analyses allowed for a more de-
tailed examination of an important aspect of
sensitive maternal interactive behavior—
contingency. It is evident that motliers' sen-
sitivity to their children's developmental
level is both global (i.e., aeross an entire play
session) and specific (i.e., on an episode-by-
episode basis). It also became evident,
through these analyses, that matches be-
tween the levels of children's and mothers'
play observed in the literature (e.g., Tamis-
LeMonda & Bornstein, 1991) are at least par-
tially detennined by mothers' contingent,
sensitive responding.
Analyses of mothers' knowledge of play
revealed that mothers, as a group, are knowl-
edgeable about development in eaily play.
Nonetheless, interesting and in.Formative
variation among mothers does exist. From a
microanalytic perspective, mothers' knowl-
edge ofthe progressive nature of play relates
to episode-by-episode adjustments in their
play with their children. Mothers who are
more knpwledgeable about the relative dif-
ficult>' of various toddler play acts are more
1763
likely to respond to their children's play
with play that is more sophisticated. The ef^
feet size of this correlation is modest and
comparable to relations between parental
knowledge and behavior in other domains
reported in the literature (Miller, 1988). On
a macroanalytic level, no relation emerged
between maternal knowledge about play
and overall frequency of maternal symbolic
play. Thus, mothers who are more knowl-
edgeable about early play development re-
spond sensitively on an episode-by-episode
basis, rather than simply offering more sym-
bolic play suggestions across the entire ses-
sion, irrespective of tiieir children's current
play level. These differences in sensitivity
between macroanalytic and microanalytic
analyses of knowledge and scaffolding be-
haviors reinforce the value of considering
the sequential nature of interactions (see
also Lewis & Lee-Painter, 1974; Tingley &
Golden, 1992).
Research investigating parental cogni-
tions has tended to explore relations be-
tween cognitions and developmental out-
comes in children (Miller, 1988); these
relations have frequently been examined
with little regard to the parental behaviors
that might mediate them, although the need
for such data has been discussed (Hunt &
Paraskevopoulos, 1980; Kindermann & Skin-
ner, 1989). Furthermore, parental cognitions
are ofiten investigated in relation to reports
of parental behaviors (either self-reports or
e.xperimenter-completed reports) rather than
to direct observations of parental interac-
tions (Sigel et al., 1992, Stevens, 1984). Fi-
nally, when parental knowledge about de-
velopment is related to parenting behavior,
researchers have typically assessed (1)
knowledge of general milestones and devel-
opment (e.g., the KIDI, MacPhee, 1981; the
KEID, Stevens, 1984) and/or (2) more gen-
eral parenting stj'les £tnd practices (e.g., au-
thoritative/authoritarian parenting; Kochan-
ska, 1990). By relating parental cognitions in
the domain of play to observed parental be-
haviors in the same domain, the present
study takes a step toward elucidating speci-
Rcity in the interplay betvveen maternal cog-
nitions and actual mother-child interactions.
 1764 Ghild Development
Appendix A
Empirical Play Scale

Level Action on Mothers' Questionnaire

Exploration:
(1) Mouthing (1) Suck block.
(2) Simple rtlanipulatidn (2) Hold spoon and look at it.
Nonsymbolic play:
(3) Unitary functional (3) Turn wheel on toy car.
(4) Inappropriate ci^mbinations (4) Put toy dish on car.
(o) Combinatioiis based on perception (5) Stack toy plates.
(6) Combinations based on function (6) Put toy lid on teapot.
Symbolic play:
(7) Self (7) Feed self with toy spoon
(8) Agentive animate (8) Wash mom with toy sponge.
(9) Agentive inanimate (9) Rock doll.
(10) Sequenced self (10) Stir in toy cup and eat from toy spoon.
(11) Sequenced agentive animate (11) Pour into toy cup from toy teapot and feed
inom.
(12) Sequenced agentive inanimate (12) Cover doll with blanket and pat to sleep.
(13) Vicarious (13) Make; doll wave "hi."
(14) Self substitution (14) Use block as sponge and wash own face.
(15) Agentive animate substitution (15) Put toy plate on mom's head as hat.
(16) Agentive inanimate substitution (16) Use spoon as brush and brush doll's hair.
(17) Sequenced vicarious (17) Make stuffed bear walk to toy car and
drive away.
(18) Sequenced self substitution (IS) Stir in toy pot with comb as spoon and eat
from comb.
(19) Sequenced agentive animate substitution (19) Feed mom with block and wipe her mouth
with t()y sponge.
(20) Sequenced agentive inanimate substi- (20) Wash doll with block as sponge and dry
Itution vvith towel.
(21) Vicarious substitution (21) Jifake toy person drive away in nesting cup
as car.
(22) Sequenced vicarious substitution (22) Fut toy bib on doll as coat and make her
walk,
(23) Self-removed (23) Make one doll kiss another doll.
(24) Emotive (24) Make doll fall down and cry.

Appendix B References
Sequences in Maternal Play Summary Score Bakeman, R., Adamson, L. B., Brown, J. V., & El-
dridge, M. E. (1989). Can early interaction
Mother Suggests When Child Is predict? How and how much? In M. H.
Bornstein & N. A. Krasnegor (Eds.), Stability
(1) Exploration (1) Off-task and continuity in mental developjnent: Be-
(2) Nonsymbolic (2) Off-task havioral and biological perspectives (pp.
play 235-248). New York: Erlbaum.
(3) Nonsymbolic (3) Exploring
play Bakeman, R., & Gottman, J. M. (1986). Observing
(4) Symbolic play (4) OfF-task interaction: An introduction to sequential
(5) Symbolic play (5) Exploring analysis. New York: Cambridge University
(6) Symbolic play (6) Engaged in nonsym- Press.
bolic play Baumwell, L., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Born-
(7) Symbolic play (7) Engaged in symbolic stein, M. H. (1996). Styles of maternal inter-
l action and toddler language comprehension.
' when a 21-month-old engaged m symbolic play, a The importance of maternal sensitivity. Manu-
mother who suggests symbolic play is suggesting play at script under review.
an appropriately sophisticated level given the age of the Beckwith, L., & Cohen, S. E. (1989). Maternal re-
child and is considered to be scafFoldmg her child's play iponsiveness with preterm infants and later
competency. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Mater-
nal responsiveness. Characteristics and con-
sequences (pp. 75-87). San Francisco.
Jossey-Bass.
 Damast, Tamis-LeMonda, and Bornstein
Belsky, J., Goode, M. K., & Most, R. K. (1980).
Maternal stimulation and infant explorator>'
competence: Cross-sectional, correlabonal,
and experimental analyses. Child Develop-
ment, 51, 1168-1178.
Belsky, J., & Most, R. K. (1981). From exploration
to play: A cross-sectional study of infant free
play behavior. Developmental Psychology,
17, 630-639.
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