Description of Test: This is an assessment of the order in which children play with intact and broken toys in the standardized free play situation.  To see the description of the Freeplay Procedure from the MALTS procedure document, move there.   To see a WORD document of the coding instructions for the Freeplay Aggression/Dominance Ratings, click to access coding document  To see the form on which the data was recorded, click to see form.

Articles: The following articles cite or use data from the Freeplay Appreciation of Standards: Toy Play

Variable Names:

  NOTE: Although there is a form and a coding document, there is not a data base with information from this coding scheme at 14 months.

Free-play

This measure is assessed in the 14, 20, 24 and 36 month visits as well as the five year visit. The children are asked to go into a room with a door which the mother closed after joining the children. The examiners at 14, 20 and 24 month visits assembled twelve toys in a standardized array on the floor. Then the children and their mothers were called into the room. The mothers had been instructed not to label any of the toys for the children nor to initiate any interaction with the twins. She could respond if approached by the children but interactions were to be kept to a minimum. Appreciation of standards as well as the twins methods of interacting with each other were assessed during this procedure. At ages 36 months, five and seven years, the children were given several vehicles, animals, and play school people to use in their free play. This measure at all ages was fifteen minutes in length.

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