Background

1. The Prediction of Cognitive Development from Maternal Scaffolding Behaviours in the First Year RoniMermelshtineBirkbeck, University of London • Conclusions • Different patterns of maternal instruction were observed for the two activities corresponding to Yont et al. (2003). • Maternal verbal style of interaction during book-sharing was the most significant predictor of later verbal abilities. Less physical and more verbal instructional behaviours were marginally significant, but so were maternal education levels and depressive symptoms. • During play interactions with shape-sorter less attention given to task features by mother predicted higher BAS scores at 51 months, may represent fixed failure feedback similarly to Carr and Pike (2012). • Infant temperament remained significant, or marginally so, even after maternal instructional behaviours were taken into account. • Future directions: finessing and further validation of observation scheme; path analyses to establish the predictors of effective scaffolding and the role of scaffolding in later cognitive functioning at 51 months and 11 years. FCCC The Families Children and Child Care study (FCCC) is a longitudinal investigation of effects of childcare on children’s developmental outcomes in an English context. Data were collected for 1,201 children at 3, 10, 18, 36 and 51 months. For more details see (Malmberg et al., 2005). Results Principal Component Analyses were carried out for each play segment to explore the factor structure of maternal behaviours, yielding four factor structure for each activity. See tables 1 and 3. Then hierarchical multiple regression analyses were carried out on the extracted factors and mother, child and home environment variables. Factors were entered in four steps: (1) Maternal characteristics; (2) Home environment; (3) Child characteristics; (4) Instructional behaviours. See tables 2 and 4. • Background • The development of cognitive abilities is said to be the product of multiple environments, operating in an interconnected network of settings such as the home, school and neighbourhoods (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). • Though children’s developmental outcomes, are influenced by multiple settings, parents’ activities in the home are said to be highly predictive of children’s cognitive skills (Hackman, Farah & Meany, 2010). • An activity often presented by parents, which can be considered to promote cognitive abilities is ‘Scaffolding’ a process in which an ‘expert partner’ provides help to a less able partner, by increasing or reducing the level of assistance according to the less able partner’s performance (Wood, Bruner & Ross, 1976). • Scaffolding is associated with maternal characteristics, and is said to be predictive of children’s developmental outcomes (Bernier et al, 2010; Carr & Pike, 2012; Dieterich et al. 2006; Hammond et al. 2012; Landry et al, 2006). • Yet scaffolding research during infancy in a UK context is limited. • Aims • Develop a valid and reliable tool to assess maternal instructional behaviours (scaffolding) during interactions with their 10-month old infants. • 2. Do maternal instructional behaviours in the first year predict children’s verbal abilities at school entry age over and above mother’s characteristics? Book-Sharing Table 1: Rotated factor loading for the remaining 11 variables, illustrating the components of maternal behaviour during book-sharing interaction Table 2: Results for fourth step of hierarchical multiple regression analysis predicting child verbal abilities at 51 months based on book-sharing observations • References • Bernier. A., Carlson, S. M., & Whipple, N. (2010). From external regulation to self-regulation: Early parenting precursors of young children’s executive functioning. Child Development, 81(1), 326-339. • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. • Carr, A., & Pike, A. (2012). Maternal scaffolding behaviour: Links with parenting style and maternal education. Developmental psychology, 48 (2), 543-551. • Dieterich, S. E., Assel, M. A., Swank, P., Smith, K. E., & Landry, S. H. (2006). The impact of early maternal verbal scaffolding and child language abilities on later decoding and reading comprehension skills. Journal of School Psychology, 43(6), 481-494.Hackman, D. A., Farah, M. J., & Meaney, M. J. (2010). Socioeconomic status and the brain: mechanistic insights from human and animal research. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(9), 651-659. • Hammond, S. I., Müller, U., Carpendale, J. I., Bibok, M. B., & Liebermann-Finestone, D. P. (2012). The effects of parental scaffolding on preschoolers' executive function. Developmental psychology, 48(1), 271. • Landry, S. H., Smith, K. E., & Swank, P. R. (2006). Responsive parenting: establishing early foundations for social, communication, and independent problem-solving skills. Developmental psychology, 42(4), 627. • Malmberg, L. E., Davies, B., Walker, J., Barnes, J., Sylva, K., Stein, A., & Leach, P. (2005). The Families, Children and Child Care (FCCC) study in relation to area characteristics: Recruitment and sample description. Retrieved November, 20, 2008. • Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving*. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 17(2), 89-100. • Yont, K. M., Snow, C. E., and Vernon-Feagans, L. (2003). The role of context in mother-child interactions: an analysis of communicative intents expressed during to play and book reading with 12-months-olds. Journal of Pragmatics, 35, 435-454. • Methods • A sample of 111 mothers and their first-borns was selected from the Families Children and Child Care study (FCCC). • Book-sharing and shape-sorting play interactions videotaped at 10 months, were separately coded for maternal instructional behaviours and verbal input. • Coding scheme has 63 yes/no questions about mother and infant activities during play interactions was developed. • Measures: • Mother characteristics – postnatal depression symptoms (EPDS) at 10 months; levels of education; ethnicity. • Child characteristics – gender; temperament (ICQ) at 10 months • Home environment – ‘10 books present?’ at 10 months • Outcome measures – Verbal Comprehension and Naming Vocabulary from the British Ability Scales at 51 months Note, Values in bold represent item loadings fitting within each factor. Shape-Sorting Table 3: Rotated factor loading for the remaining 11 variables, illustrating the components of maternal behaviour during shape-sorting play interaction Table 4: Results for fourth step of hierarchical multiple regression analysis predicting child verbal abilities at 51 months based on shape-sorting observations Acknowledgments The following research was carried out as part of the requirement for completion of a MSc in Developmental Sciences course at Birkbeck, University of London. Special thanks goes to my supervisor Professor Jacqueline Barnes for her continuous guidance and support. I would also like to thank Dr. SunaEryigit-Madzwamuse for her assistance with statistical analysis and Pete Bowers for helping in the development of the observation scheme. Contact details: r.mermelshtine@psychology.bbk.ac.uk Twitter: @ronimermel Note, Values in bold represent item loadings fitting within each factor.