Frenchtoys-libraries: A playful context for the parents-child interactions.

This study aims to examine parents-child interactions during play activities in French toy libraries with a particular focus on fathers. The library toy serve an important social function, providing a valuable meeting place for families (Ozanne, 2011) and improving the quality of interactions between family members (Kléménovic, 2014). This study is based on the psychological model of Vygotski, namely parental encouragement during a shared game can promote the commitment of the child in the zone of proximal development (Doyla, 2009) and on the models in educational sciences considering that shared rules define the framework of the game in which everyone will be able to evolve freely (Brougère, 2005). The study was conducted within a qualitative interpretative research paradigm (Guba, 1981). Filmed and ethnographic observations were carried out in two toy libraries in various spaces as well as semi-structured interviews with parents. The analyzes of the observations make it possible to see whether or not the parents play with their child, according to what methods and what support their bring to the play activity. Ethical considerations of qualitative research were respected (consent form, participants' pseudonyms).The findings show that most parents pay more attention to the rules of the games contrary to the children, that their interventions offer other possibilities of action for playing. Some differences between fathers and mothers in play activities also appear. These results suggest implications for how toy-librarians could consider their role in promoting the parents-child interactions, in connection with public policies to support parenthood.

Corinne Ponce, Stephanie Rubi, Stéphanie Constans, Yannick Hernández, Véronique Rouyer. Frenchtoys-libraries: A playful context for the parents-child interactions.. EECERA Annual Conference. Cultures of Play: Actors, Affordances and Arenas, University of Strathclyde, Aug 2022, Glasgow, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-05592577⟩ (lien externe)