Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different patterns of adult social interaction during play on children's exploration of toys and emotional responses. Four preschoolers with moderate delays participated. At specified intervals, an adult joined the child in play with the toys using either child-centered or adult-centered play behaviors. While the two styles of adult interaction did not affect the children's use of goal-directed exploration or success, two of the children showed more positive emotional responses during the child-centered than the adult-centered condition. A review of teacher ratings of the children's use of coping strategies suggests that different coping abilities may interact with social-environmental events to provide a mechanism for explaining the degree to which children are influenced by those events.
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