| Abstract: | This study investigated the instructional strategies mothers used when interacting with their child on a concept-learning task and the effect of this interaction on subsequent independent child performance. Also investigated was whether mothers' behaviors and perceptions differed depending on the child's age, task difficulty, or the child's needs for assistance. Sixty 3- and 5-year-old children participated in a three-phase sequence of tasks that required the matching of opposite concepts. The pretest and posttest phases were identical for all children, but during the second phase half the children completed the tasks with their mothers and half continued to work independently. During each phase, children received both an easy and a difficult version of the task. Children who interacted with their mothers matched more concepts correctly on the posttest and gave more correct explanations for their matches than children who worked independently. Mothers of 3-year-olds provided more assistance than mothers of 5-year-olds, and mothers provided higher levels of assistance on the difficult task than on the easy task. Most mothers were sensitive to their child's needs in that the instructional strategies they adopted throughout the interaction were appropriately modified in response to their child's successes and failures. There was some evidence that individual differences in maternal sensitivity were related to variations in children's independent performance. Mothers' perceptions of the task, of their child's needs for assistance, and of their own role in the interaction were related to their overt behaviors. Intervention programs aimed at fostering parents' skills in interacting with their children should emphasize the importance of scaffolded instruction tuned to the child's capabilities. |
