Making the wait less arduous for toddlers
Developmental psychology

Date:
November 17, 2021
Source:
Ruhr-University Bochum
Summary:
When toddlers have to wait, it often leads to negative affect, as
they can't yet regulate their emotions. Psychologists set out to
find out how to help them. Is temperament a factor that influences
toddler behavior while waiting? Whom can children imitate in order
to cope better with long waits? They concluded that, left to their
own devices, children prefer activities which correspond to their
temperament. Toddlers were able to learn to distract themselves
by observing a stranger and generalized the observed behavior.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
When toddlers have to wait, it often leads to negative affect, as they
can't yet regulate their emotions. Psychologists set out to find out how
to help them. Is temperament a factor that influences toddler behavior
while waiting? Whom can children imitate in order to cope better with
long waits? They concluded that, left to their own devices, children
prefer activities which correspond to their temperament. Toddlers
were able to learn to distract themselves by observing a stranger and generalized the observed behavior.


==========================================================================
How to help your children When their mother wants to finish typing an
email or their father is on the phone, toddlers can get restless very
quickly: at this age, waiting is not something they are good at. How
can parents teach their children to cope better with such waiting
situations? This question was the starting point for the study that
involved 96 toddlers aged two and their parents. A previous study had
shown that children can learn through observation to distract themselves
with a toy while waiting. The current work focused on role of a child's temperament.

Three-minute wait Therefore, the researchers made the toddlers in the
study wait for three minutes for a small gift or candy. The coveted
object was put out of reach, but within sight and the study leader left
the room. While waiting, the parents interfered as little as possible
with the child, leaving them to their own devices. A stack of cups
and, as a more active toy, a toy lawn mower were available. On the experimenter's return, the toddler received the desired object. "We
observed that children who were described by their parents as rather
calm tended to occupy themselves by playing calmly, such as stacking
the cups, and the toddlers who were characterised by their parents as
rather active tended to play in an active manner, such as running around
with the lawn mower and thus managed to regulate their negative feelings
well," outlines Johanna Schoppmann.

Strangers, too, can be role models In the second step, the researchers
looked at how best to support a child in finding something to do while
waiting in order to regulate their emotions. To this end, the researchers showed the children how to distract themselves with either quiet or
active playing activities, whereas children in a control group performed
a playful task that had nothing to do with waiting. Subsequently, all
children waited a second time for three minutes. "In this situation, it
was shown that toddlers who had observed an adult playing while waiting distracted themselves more than the children who had not observed anyone waiting," says Johanna Schoppmann. This means that the children copied distraction as a strategy. However, there were no differences in whether
the children's temperament matched the demonstrated playing style (quiet
or active). The researchers conclude that toys that match the child's temperament are not as important when it comes to learning strategies
from others. Toddlers can also learn from both parents and strangers
how to regulate their emotions through activity.

Funding The project was funded by the German Research Foundation (funding codes: 415/8- 1; AOBJ:632124).

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Ruhr-University_Bochum. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Johanna Schoppmann, Silvia Schneider, Sabine Seehagen. Can you
teach me
not to be angry? Relations between temperament and the emotion
regulation strategy distraction in 2‐year‐olds. Child
Development, 2021; DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13682 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211117100109.htm

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