Maternal scaffolding during play with 12- to 24-month-old infants: stability over time and relations with emerging effortful control

Abstract: There is evidence that parents could influence the development of their children’s effortful control in infancy through social interaction. Playful interactions in infancy often involve scaffolding - i.e. the parental provision of support and modelling for problem solving and learning during play. However, previous research has found little consistency over time in this type of parental scaffolding behaviour with infants. The present study had two aims. The first aim was to use a new, tiered coding system to assess the consistency of maternal scaffolding across toys (at the same time point) and over time. The second aim was to assess whether features of parental scaffolding related to concurrent or future measures of child effortful control. Thirty-six mother-child dyads engaged in joint play when children were 12, 18 and 24 months old. The following inhibitory/effortful control tests were administered: The ‘Grasping Task’, an object-retrieval task using a spoon laden with food at 12 months; Two delay of gratification tasks (Snack Delay and Gift Delay) at 24 months. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development Cognitive Scale was administered at 18 months. Maternal propensity to scaffold was the scaffolding behaviour that showed most consistency across toys and over time. Maternal contingency at 12 months predicted children’s effortful control at 24 months. Sequential analysis indicated that maternal contingent interventions leading to children’s successful actions could be the developmental mechanism underpinning the relationship between contingency and later effortful control. Maternal behaviour during play could lay the foundations for the strategic regulation of cognition and behaviour

A New Context Affording for Regulation: The Case of Musical Play

The present study set out to investigate theoretical speculations that regulation and musical play, an initial manifestation of musicality, are directly linked. This study aimed to explore the potential for regulation to occur during musical play and investigate the nature of the regulatory behaviours. Thirty-six children, aged 6 and 8, were observed during musical play sessions. These observations were analysed, using a coding framework, to identify and code regulatory behaviours as to the type of regulation, its social nature and the direction of activity. The data were subjected to quantitative analysis. The findings suggest that regulatory behaviours occurred during musical play. During musical play tasks, cognitive monitoring and emotional/motivational monitoring behaviours were the most prevalent, significantly more opportunities were provided for socially-shared regulation compared to self- or co-regulation, and the children more often directed their activity towards fundamental, rather than superficial aspects of tasks. The results can inform theory and practice

Examining Change in Metacognitive Knowledge and Metacognitive Control During Motor Learning: What Can be Learned by Combining Methodological Approaches?

Growing recognition of the importance of understanding metacognitive behaviour as it occurs in everyday learning situations has prompted an expansion of the methodological approaches used to examine metacognition. This becomes especially pertinent when examining the process of metacognitive change, where \u27on-line\u27 observational approaches able to capture metacognitive performance as it occurs during socially-mediated learning are being increasingly applied. This study applied a mixed methods approach to examine children\u27s metacognitive performance as it was exhibited during participation in an intervention program aimed at addressing motor performance difficulties. Participants in the study were ten 7-9 year old children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), a condition characterized by poor motor coordination and difficulty acquiring motor-based tasks. All participants engaged in a 10-session program in which children were taught to use a problem-solving strategy for addressing motor performance difficulties. To examine children\u27s metacognitive performance, sessions were video-taped and subsequently analysed using a quantitative observational coding method and an in-depth qualitative review of therapist-child interactions. This allowed for a fine-grained analysis of children\u27s demonstration of metacognitive knowledge and control and how such performance evolved over the course of the program. Of particular interest was the finding that while children were often able to express task-specific knowledge, they failed to apply this knowledge during practice. Conversely, children were often able to demonstrate performance-based evidence for metacognitive control but were not able to make conscious reports of such skill following practice. This finding is consistent with models of metacognitive development which suggest that the emergence of performance-based metacognitive skills precede the ability for the conscious expression of metacognitive awareness and knowledge. Furthermore, it supports the use of multiple methods for examining metacognitive performance and change in the context of a meaningful learning situation

An investigation of cognitive factors involved in the development of problem-solving strategies by young children

There is much current interest in children's problem-solving, both within education, and within psychology. The present study explores the development of young children's problem-solving abilities, and the cognitive factors which might be related to this. Such development is conceptualised in terms of the emergence of increasingly sophisticated and powerful cognitive strategies. In a previous study (Whitebread, 1983), which involved 20 children aged 5 and 6 years, a strong interaction was revealed between underlying cognitive factors, strategy use and performance on a reclassification task. The present work is an extension of that study with a more complex task, and with a wider age-range of children. On this occasion, children's performance on an inductive reasoning task (the multidimensional discrimination learning task) was examined. The sample consisted of 72 Leicestershire Primary school children, comprising three equal groups of 24 children aged 6, 8 and 10 years. The children were tested on a number of cognitive factors theoretically predicted to influence performance on reasoning and problem-solving tasks. These predictors included working memory capacity, metacognitive awareness and control, style of attribution, and two measures of cognitive style (cognitive tempo and field dependence-independence). Cluster analysis of strategic components revealed a pattern of 7 clusters of increasingly complex strategic behaviours used by the children on the MDL task. These Strategy Clusters appeared to be principally differentiated by an increasing ability to integrate information gained from different trials. Two stylistic variations were also identified which were related to the number of hypotheses verbalised on each trial. Further investigation involving multiple regression analyses revealed that the major factor which predicted strategic behaviour and performance on the MDL task was metacognitive awareness and control. However, correlational analyses of subgroups revealed interactions between predictors, and between predictors and strategies, in relation to performance. No significant effects were revealed relating to gender, but age effects in relation to predictors, strategies and performance were indicated. The implications for future research and for the development of children's thinking and problem-solving skills within educational contexts is discussed

An investigation of cognitive factors involved in the development of problem-solving strategies by young children

There is much current interest in children's problem-solving, both within education, and within psychology. The present study explores the development of young children's problem-solving abilities, and the cognitive factors which might be related to this. Such development is conceptualised in terms of the emergence of increasingly sophisticated and powerful cognitive strategies. In a previous study (Whitebread, 1983), which involved 20 children aged 5 and 6 years, a strong interaction was revealed between underlying cognitive factors, strategy use and performance on a reclassification task. The present work is an extension of that study with a more complex task, and with a wider age-range of children. On this occasion, children's performance on an inductive reasoning task (the multidimensional discrimination learning task) was examined. The sample consisted of 72 Leicestershire Primary school children, comprising three equal groups of 24 children aged 6, 8 and 10 years. The children were tested on a number of cognitive factors theoretically predicted to influence performance on reasoning and problem-solving tasks. These predictors included working memory capacity, metacognitive awareness and control, style of attribution, and two measures of cognitive style (cognitive tempo and field dependence-independence). Cluster analysis of strategic components revealed a pattern of 7 clusters of increasingly complex strategic behaviours used by the children on the MDL task. These Strategy Clusters appeared to be principally differentiated by an increasing ability to integrate information gained from different trials. Two stylistic variations were also identified which were related to the number of hypotheses verbalised on each trial. Further investigation involving multiple regression analyses revealed that the major factor which predicted strategic behaviour and performance on the MDL task was metacognitive awareness and control. However, correlational analyses of subgroups revealed interactions between predictors, and between predictors and strategies, in relation to performance. No significant effects were revealed relating to gender, but age effects in relation to predictors, strategies and performance were indicated. The implications for future research and for the development of children's thinking and problem-solving skills within educational contexts is discussed

Emergencia y desarrollo temprano de la autorregulación en niños preescolares

Es ampliamente reconocido en la literatura que las habilidades metacognitivas y de autorregulación son de fundamental importancia para el desarrollo general y académico de los niños, y que son altamente enseñables. Cuándo y cómo comienzan a desarrollarse estas habilidades son preguntas aún abiertas a debate, y por lo tanto, sujetas a la nueva evidencia acumulada en este campo de investigación. En este artículo nos proponemos desarrollar una mirada general de los avances significativos durante la última década en la investigación sobre el desarrollo de la autorregulación desde el nacimiento hasta los seis años de edad. Revisamos evidencia que sugiere que estas habilidades comienzan a desarrollarse desde el la infancia misma y a lo largo de los años preescolares. En las primeras dos secciones abordamos la emergencia temprana del funcionamiento ejecutivo y el control cognitivo, y la regulación social y emocional. En la sección final tratamos un área significativa de emergencia reciente, relacionada con las herramientas comunicativas y simbólicas y el rol clave que juegan en la emergencia de las habilidades de autorregulación en niños pequeños. Discutimos las implicancias teóricas, metodológicas y educacionales de este campo de investigación

A metakogníció nemverbális indikátorai kisgyermekkorban

A metakogníció-kutatás szakirodalmának egyik jelentős kérdése, hogy a metakognitív folyamatok milyen mértékben tudatosak és elérhetőek a verbális kifejezés számára (Veenman, Van Hout-Wolters és Afflerbach, 2006). Ez fontos elméleti probléma, amely nagyon szorosan összefügg kutatásmódszertani megfontolásokkal. A metakognitív folyamatok eddigi vizsgálata elsősorban a verbális megnyilvánulásokon keresztül történt – például interjúk, kérdőívek és hangosan gondolkodtatás módszerével. Ez a megközelítés alapjában kizárja a tudattalan és a nemverbális folyamatok és viselkedésformák figyelembe vételét

The emergence and early development of self-regulation in young children

Es ampliamente reconocido en la literatura que las habilidades metacognitivas y de autorregulación son de fundamental importancia para el desarrollo general y académico de los niños, y que son altamente enseñables. Cuándo y cómo comienzan a desarrollarse estas habilidades son preguntas aún abiertas a debate, y por lo tanto, sujetas a la nueva evidencia acumulada en este campo de investigación. En este artículo nos proponemos desarrollar una mirada general de los avances significativos durante la última década en la investigación sobre el desarrollo de la autorregulación desde el nacimiento hasta los seis años de edad. Revisamos evidencia que sugiere que estas habilidades comienzan a desarrollarse desde el la infancia misma y a lo largo de los años preescolares. En las primeras dos secciones abordamos la emergencia temprana del funcionamiento ejecutivo y el control cognitivo, y la regulación social y emocional. En la sección final tratamos un área significativa de emergencia reciente, relacionada con las herramientas comunicativas y simbólicas y el rol clave que juegan en la emergencia de las habilidades de autorregulación en niños pequeños. Discutimos las implicancias teóricas, metodológicas y educacionales de este campo de investigación.It is amply recognised in the literature that metacognitive and self-regulatory abilities are of fundamental significance for children’s general and academic development, and also, that these abilities are highly teachable. When do these skills emerge and how do they develop are questions still open to debate, and therefore, subject to new evidence accumulated in the field. In this paper we aim to provide a general overview of the significant advances in the last decade of research regarding the development of self-regulation in children from birth to six years of age. We review evidence suggesting that these abilities begin their development right from infancy and through the preschool years. In the first two sections we address the early emergence of executive functioning and cognitive control, and early emotional and social regulation. The final section deals with a significant and newly emerging area of research, concerned with early communicative and symbolic tools and the key role they play in the emergence of self-regulatory abilities in young children. We discuss the theoretical, methodological and educational significance of this body of research.Grupo FORCE (HUM-386). Departamento de Didáctica y Organización Escolar de la Universidad de Granada