Excerpt volume: Learning the designed actions of everyday objects

How do young children learn to use everyday objects—doorknobs, latches, zippers, Velcro fastenings, and so on—in the ways the objects were designed to be used? Designed actions can be easy or difficult to implement (e.g., pushing a fire door vs. lifting up a garage door) and more or less hidden from view (e.g., press-turn-pull a pill bottle lid vs. lifting a sugar bowl lid). Although the designed actions for everyday objects seem obvious to adults, they are not necessarily obvious to young children. Surprisingly little is known about how young children learn to implement the designed actions of the objects that populate their everyday environment. Here, we are investigating the real-time and developmental progression in 12- to 60-month-old children’s learning of the designed actions for everyday objects and toys. Moreover, we are testing the motivational, perceptual, social, and biomechanical factors that facilitate learning about these designed actions.