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Interviewee Profile
Melissa (Allison's Mother)
Melissa (Allison's Mother)
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Occupation: Stay-at-Home Mom
Introduction: Melissa is Allison's mother, she has 3 young daughters and is a stay-at-home mother. She has lived in Southern California most of her life and enjoys spending time with her family! Below are the interview questions she was asked alongside her responses.
Interview Questions
How often does she play with these toys? Do you find that she enjoys playing with puzzles?
"I would say 5 times out of the week she plays with them. I follow Instagram moms and they tell you to rotate the toys so they don't get tired of the same toy. So that's something I have tried to do with her (the second child), and I think it does work better. She tends to gravitate towards it more when she sees it once in a great while versus like every day."
Does she have a preference for the puzzle in comparison to other toys? Why or why not?
"I think she does, she likes to have an audience. So when she's playing with the puzzles she likes for me to say "Yayy!" when she gets it in the right spot. She definitely always wants me to see what she's doing, and I can't step away for a second because she's like "wait, wait, wait, you're not looking." She wants me to be involved all the time, especially with the puzzles because she knows if it doesn't fit she can grab my hand to help her fit it. That's why I feel like the puzzles are her favorite, more just cause I can be more interactive with her."
How do you think your daughter perceives these toys in comparison to others?
"I have a lot of different types of toys given that I have 3 kids, and with her, I try to do the Montessori-type toys that are very educational. Toys that she can feel different shapes and see different colors, and I think it's the shapes and colors that interest her. She also loves Ms. Rachel who incorporates a lot of puzzles and one of the puzzles is a farm. She has the same one, so she sees it during TV time and in person so connects the two and therefore plays with those toys versus the toys Ms. Rachel is not playing with."
What skills do you think she is learning when interacting with these toys?
Fine Motor Skills
Fine Motor Skills
These skills include reaching, grasping, and manually manipulating objects in a certain way. This enhances hand-eye coordination that can be observed through Allison's play session with these.
Problem Solving
Problem Solving
Through play, she figured out how these puzzles work, learning how to move, sort and categorize the pieces to their assigned slots.
Memory
Memory
Puzzle play allows the opportunity to use their memory of a certain piece's shape, color and size to visualize where they may fit. Enhancing short term memory
How is she using it in different contexts (if she is)?
"Yeah! She's getting familiar with the shapes, so now when she's away from the puzzle she understands how to make a circle or what a circle looks like. Because we're saying "Okay put the circle here," she's identifying the word with the actual figure, what it's supposed to look like. Even though it's not perfect, I know that's what she's trying to do."
What age level (if any) do you think these puzzles are most appropriate for?
"I would say around her age. I had a few of these puzzles prior and she didn't want to play with them, she didn't really understand. It was a curveball for me too because I was thinking "Oh, it says for the ages between this and this, so I think she's going to like it." But she didn't, so I put them to the side. Now she's about to be 2, she likes them more and understands them but it's all for learning, she wasn't ready for it yet when she had just started walking. Now she's going to be 2, she's more mobile and constantly venturing out to see what she can do. I think her motor skills are a lot better now that she's about to be 2, so puzzles are definitely appropriate for 1 and a half and on."
Are you planning on buying more puzzles in the future?
"Definitely, I really want to especially because I have another child after her. I see that my 1 year old really likes it, and I also did keep puzzles from my older daughter that are more about animal shapes and those are still here with us and those are the ones she [Allison] also plays with now. So yes, I definitely will continue to buy more, but the thicker puzzles, wood ones! I feel those get them more excited when they play they say "Oh, I really did get it!" I definitely feel that because it's wood, it kind of clicks a little bit more and you can hear that it is or is not fitting, it helps them stimulate their understanding and like it more!"
Did you play with these toys when you were younger? What do you think you learned?
"Puzzles, yes, but I would say when I was much older, it was more about bonding with my parents and grandparents on a Friday night and they would just do puzzles on the table. But it was the little puzzles and they taught me that I had to first find the corners and work our way in. So it is definitely different than the puzzles she has now but I would say the puzzle and the satisfaction of "Oh I found it!", and figuring it out wether it is in place, is the same.
If you could, what part of these toys would you change?
"Something I saw recently that I thought was a good idea for the wood puzzles was putting velcro on the back of the pieces, so it would stick. So when you would put them away, they do not come out and you aren't missing a piece. It is a good idea, but I know that it would not work with all puzzles considering if they are thinner. But for the big wood chunks, it isn't a bad idea because I think I wouldn't lose any pieces!"
Do you choose toys to encourage specific skills in general?
" Yes! For instance, we also have magnetic tiles and a light table, making them light up and be translucent. And we use that so we can teach her colors, so they come in green, orange, yellow, purple, blue, and so we put our eyes near and say "Oh look, you look blue or oh look, you look yellow!" and she will go put it near her eye and look through it and so it is for her to get the idea of "Oh, this is how you get the color" So if she looked through the blue, it would look blue or if she lookd through the yellow, everything would look yellow so I feel like they do help with coordination. So what we will do is for example, we get yellow items and put it with the yellow tile and coordinate it. So I mean there is a lot, and this stay-at-home mom thing is new to me so I think "Okay, what can my kids benefit from, other than just watching TV?" Sometimes you have to have one-on-one!
Analysis
From this interview with Melissa, Allison's mother, we gain insight on the high value she holds for learning opportunities during play. She affirms that providing her children with puzzles, requiring them to incorporate coordination, memory, and hands-on interaction will benefit their overall cognitive and motor development. Melissa shares that it brings her joy to see this increased interest in her children and see in these interactions how her daughter's motor and cognitive skills grow over time. She describes that once Allison reached the age where her motor abilities increased, she was able to recognize her daughter's interest and those interactions have now progressed into a one-on-one collaborative play session. Especially as Allison models her understanding of the puzzle placement and at times looks to her mother for affirmation. These instances illustrate not only her increased problem-solving abilities but also her appreciation for interactive play.
Themes of the Interview
Themes that arise from this interview include natural play, memory, motor development, cognition, problem-solving skills, puzzle play, parent-child relationships and above all, learning !
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