Abstract Although the presence of toys in childhood has remained steady for decades, the types of toys that fill children's toy boxes have changed, especially over the last 10-15 years. Many of today's toys are marked by technological enhancements, from a shape sorter driven by a singing bear to robotic plastic animals designed to match a toddler's favorite television show. Although examining the effects of these changes is still an unexplored area, research to date suggests that there may be costs to the quality of caregiver-child interaction when using these toys together. This leads to two possibilities: (1) the design of the enhancements themselves hurt interactions; or (2) these toys can still be beneficial to interactions, but caregivers simply need to be aware of the potential pitfalls. In this study, we explore whether providing caregivers with a subtle cue about the potential negative impacts of technological toys on caregiver--child interaction affects their behavior.