The "Play Study" is a large project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

The study focuses on mothers and their young, normally developing children. We are interested in the role of mother-child play in young children’s development and the mother-child relationship.

In addition to mother-child play, we also study other factors that may be involved in children’s early development: temperament differences among young children, interactions between mothers and children, and characteristics of the family as a whole.