[LesLattis]

> Do parents hold, kiss, play with their children? Do they teach them things? What are their beliefs of what children can do at different ages? What is allowed? Not allowed? Do parents read to them when they are infants?

I think it is very difficult to generalise because there is a wide gap in the lifestyles of say urban middle-class families and traditional rural families.

many women need to go back to work very soon so toddlers are often left with grandparents or caregivers, for a start.
generally, parents do hold and kiss children. (in Taiwan, I never saw any affection between a parent and a child in a YEAR, working at a kindergarten.)
not holding might be a policy for caregivers - I've heard about this in my country.
some parents seem to think that free play is useless and they overdo teaching. some 3-year-olds come to school knowing Thai letters for example. very few of my kids in a middle-class urban school get storytime from their parents, which is a huge big mistake the school needs to address. they hardly know any Thai songs or children's rhymes because there is so much emphasis on English that Thai has barely any prestige.
as for what is allowed and not allowed, wide differences again. many children are spoiled, especially if they happen to have caregivers or maids at home, then they are very unhappy about picking up their toys for example. but on the other hand, they also need to work hard from age 3, when they go to kindergarten: handwriting, letters, maths. teaching seems to be very direct, so, for example, for developing fine motor skills, in my class we do lots of colouring, painting, cutting, pasting, stringing beads, play dough, etc. parents and many Thai teachers just make them practise their handwriting on pages and pages of worksheets. kids do get labelled as underachieving and slow and stupid and all sorts of things by the time they are 4.
this is only the environment I am familiar with, and I know you asked about birth to 3 years old, but anyway, this might help a little.