Faculty and student researchers at Eastern Connecticut State University will be announcing the results of the 2013 TIMPANI (Toys that Inspire Mindful Play and Nurture Imagination) Toy Study, at 10 a.m. on Dec. 4 in The Joinery at the Center for Early Childhood Education on Eastern’s North Campus.
The 2013 study marks the fifth year that Eastern’s Center for Early Childhood Education has evaluated toys and announced its TIMPANI study results.
This annual empirical study by Eastern researchers examines how young children in natural settings play with a variety of toys. Toys are selected for the TIMPANI study based on recommendations from parents, teachers and faculty. After the toys are chosen, they are placed in preschool classrooms and rated on three subscales: thinking and problem-solving, cooperation and social interaction, and creativity and imagination.
Cassie Savalli, an Eastern senior majoring in early childhood education, and junior Chamari Davis were responsible for videotaping children playing with the toys and coding the videos according to the evaluation rubric.
The two students and Professor Jeffrey Trawick-Smith, the Phyllis Waite Endowed Chair of Early Childhood Education and the study’s principal researcher,
co-presented on the study’s results at the National Association for the Education of Young Children Conference in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 22.