Play, problem-solving and tool use: Individual differences in preschool children

While recent research has promoted play as an integral component of a child's cognitive functioning, tool-use has been relatively ignored in this discussion. It may be the case that these two abilities, especially constructive play and problem solving through the use of tools, emerging early in a child's life, have some connection in the formation of higher cognitive processing. From an evolutionary developmental perspective, three-year old children were observed in two free-play sessions and participated in a toy-retrieval task. Results indicate boys engaged in more constructive play than girls and were more likely to use tools to solve a problem. Also, the findings suggest that the gender difference observed reflects a bias in motivation to interact with objects, with the amount of time spent in constructive play predicting performance on the tool-use task, suggesting that much of the variance in the gender difference in tool use can be attributed to experience in constructive play. This is consistent with the evolutionary theoretical idea that boys' and girls' play styles evolved to prepare them for adult life in traditional environments.