Object manipulation scaffolds the development of tool use in children
Ellen Soeters, Jake A. Funkhouser, Erik P. Willems, Crickette Sanz, Kathelijne Koops · 2026
Read Object manipulation scaffolds the development of tool use in children by Ellen Soeters, Jake A. Funkhouser, Erik P. Willems, Crickette Sanz, Kathelijne Koops (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13542482.txt.
Description
Toddlers who fiddle with objects a lot become children who use tools, suggests a 2026 study by Ellen Soeters and co-authors. The team filmed 31 children in Swiss daycares, from six months to four and a half years old, across hundreds of observation sessions.
Simple handling bouts shrank with age while true tool use grew. Chances to learn from others raised how often children engaged with materials, though a crowd alone lowered it. More objects within reach meant more and richer engagement. The authors call handling the scaffold of tool use, and they offer the data for comparison with young apes.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ellen Soeters, Jake A. Funkhouser, Erik P. Willems, Crickette Sanz, Kathelijne Koops |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 53 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |