Empowering and Educating Parents to Implement a Home Intervention: Effects on Preschool Children’s Engagement in Hands-on Constructive Play

Abstract

Constructive play is a creative process-oriented activity that promotes children’s engaged learning through building and designing with materials. This study investigated a parent-implemented intervention to promote active engagement in constructive play for preschool-aged children at risk for developmental delay. This study utilized a single-subject multiple-baseline across-participants design with four participants. Visual analysis of the data identified a functional relation between the temporal, physical, and social–emotional environmental support provided by the parents and the children’s active engagement in constructive play. Parents reported the intervention as meaningful to their lives, indicating strong social validity. These findings highlight the importance of centering and working with parents in their home environment and provide evidence that empowering parents to provide support and minimize barriers facilitates children’s active engagement in constructive play.

Keywords

• early childhood
• constructive play
• parent-implemented intervention
• home setting