app), and physical toys were designed to match the digital games. During digital play compared to physical play, mothers and children spoke fewer spatial words, used different spatial language types, and mothers asked fewer questions, including pedagogical questions that aim to promote learning. Further analyses examined the dimensionality of the activities and children's prior play experiences. In an increasingly digital world, it is important to understand how spatial play, whether in physical or digital form, impacts children's spatial development. By demonstrating how mothers and children change their behavior between digital and physical play, this study adds to the growing research on how parents can support their children's engagement with and learning from digital technology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Eisen et al. (Thu,) studied this question.