Dolls, not tablets, excel at teaching children important skills, study reveals

Empathy, tolerance and the ability to see the world from the perspective of others are important skills — and they begin to develop at an early age. New research suggests that playing with dolls rather than tablets may be more effective in developing these skills.

Researchers from Cardiff University in the UK found that children aged 4-8 who played with dolls showed better progress than those who played open-ended games on digital tablets in developing so-called “false belief understanding.” The study was a randomized trial and was conducted for six weeks.

Understanding false belief is our ability to recognize that others may hold false beliefs or make mistakes about the world. Developing this understanding helps us to appreciate that others may have different beliefs and opinions — about politics, religion, among many things — and to be able to tolerate and sympathize with that.

Children who develop this cognitive ability can better navigate complex social situations and deal with conflict. Psychologists believe that children begin to develop this ability primarily between the ages of 4 and 8, and some studies have shown that development can begin even before the age of 2.

A classic example of understanding false beliefs is the work of Sally Anne, conducted by researchers in London in 1983. The children were shown two dolls — Sally, who had a basket, and Anne, who had a box. Sally’s doll then puts the marble in her basket and leaves the room. Anne takes the marble from the basket and hides it in her box. Sally then returns to the room.

The children in the study were asked three questions, the main one being, “Where will Sally look for her marble?” If the children answered “basket,” then they understood that Sally’s view of the world — that the marble was in her basket — was not true.

Examination

In a six-week study, children ages 4-8 played with dolls or digital tablets loaded with creative, open-ended games. There were 81 children, with an average age of 6, from South Wales. Children were randomly selected to play with dolls or tablets; they could not choose for themselves. Parents kept a diary of playtimes, which lasted for hours.

After a period of testing, the researchers found that the children who had played with the dolls had a strong improvement in their understanding of false beliefs and the ability to distinguish their own information from what others believed to be true. To measure this development, the researchers used the Sandbox Task, a psychological tool developed in 2011. It is similar to the Sally Anne task but involves moving and burying an object in a sandbox.

The researchers also observed that children in the doll group often included friends, siblings and parents in their play. Children in the tablet group played alone. The children who played with the dolls also used to give them personality, talk about what they think the dolls want, what they believe or what they have heard.

The researchers concluded that playing with dolls may help children practice and develop social processing skills.

“The mechanism behind this improvement requires further investigation, but we think that dolls may encourage social interaction and more of these non-social skills,” according to the study.

Tablet use is increasing among children

Busy parents may be tempted to use tablets to keep their children occupied. The Pew Research Center found that 63% of children ages 2-4 interact with pills, and that number increases with age — 81% for children ages 5-7 and 80% for children ages 8-10. The survey also showed the majority of children using smartphones at a young age — 59% aged 2-4, 58% aged 5-7 and 64% aged 8-10.

Most parents — nearly 60% — say they are “doing the best they can,” while just over 40% say they “could do better” in managing their children’s screen time, according to the survey.

Are pills bad?

So, is it time to ditch the pills and order some dolls? Sarah Gerson, co-author of the study and a psychologist at Cardiff University, said the study was not a case of children using pills or other substances.

“My general advice is about letting kids embrace the kinds of play that come naturally to them,” Gerson told CNET. “Although tablet games were our ‘control’/comparison group in this study, we make the point that this doesn’t mean anything bad about the technology. Rather, different types of toys and games can be beneficial for different types of learning/development.”

Although Gerson and his team used dolls in the experiment, children can also improve their understanding of false beliefs by playing with other inanimate objects.

“Humanoid dolls are an easy access medium because they naturally encourage children to use them to practice interacting with people,” Gerson said. “There’s probably a lot of variation where kids extend these kinds of social interactions to stuffed animals, dinosaurs, superheroes, etc. What I think is interesting about dolls is that they don’t really have a defined role or script — unlike, say, superheroes — so it allows kids to play as much as they want in open ways.”