Early Mother -Child Interactions During Symbolic Production
Forty-eight mother-child dyads (1½-, 2½-, and 3½-year-olds) participated in four tasks. Two involved unstructured drawing and pretense, in which little instruction was given for completing the tasks, and two involved structured drawing and pretense, in which the dyads were given specific goals (i.e., copying shapes and pretending to have dimer). Each session was videotaped, and collaborative symbol-producing episodes were coded for behaviors relating to maintaining joint participation and to symbol-related speech and action. After these sessions, mothers completed a questionnaire concerning their beliefs about the nature and importance of drawing and pretense. This was included to examine how mothers' beliefs are related to how they interact with their children during symbolic activities. The results indicated that mothers and children relied on many verbal and nonverbal behaviors in order to maintain joint participation and to convey symbol-specific information to one another (particularly regarding the process of symbol-making). The prevalence of these behaviors often differed across symbol systems, contrary to the predictions of this study. Mothers' reported beliefs were related to the scaffolding of their children's symbol making, and mothers were often found to be more directive during structured tasks than unstructured tasks.
Sociology, Individual and Family Studies
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign