This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Skibbe, L. Articles by Justice, L. M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Parental Scaffolding of Children's Phonological Awareness Skills

Interactions Between Mothers and Their Preschoolers With Language Difficulties

University of Virginia, les4f{at}virginia.edu

Michelle Behnke

University of Virginia

Laura M. Justice

University of Virginia

This study examined mother—child verbal exchanges during phonological awareness (PA) tasks embedded into storybook reading sessions. The aims of the research were (a) to determine how mothers scaffolded their children's task performance, (b) to characterize the stability of maternal scaffolding over four sessions, and (c) to study the relation between maternal scaffolds and children's developing PA competencies. Five mothers and their 4-year-old children with language difficulties read a storybook four times during a 1-week period. The storybook included nine questions (e.g., What sound does bear start with?) for mothers to ask their children to help them develop PA. Coding of maternal scaffold quantity and type, as well as children's task performance, was conducted to characterize scaffolding over time and to measure children's developing PA competence. Results showed that mothers used a variety of directive and responsive scaffolds to help their children perform the PA tasks but preferred phonological cues, which provided models of phonological concepts, and praise, which provided affirmation of performance. The three children of mothers who used more scaffolds overall and who decreased their scaffolds over sessions (including directives) were able to perform independently and accurately on more PA tasks at the end of four sessions than the other two children. We hypothesize that both directive and responsive scaffolds serve complementary purposes when used by mothers to scaffold children's PA learning. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Communication Disorders Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 4, 189-203 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/15257401040250040401


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. C. Pianta and B. K. Hamre Conceptualization, Measurement, and Improvement of Classroom Processes: Standardized Observation Can Leverage Capacity Educational Researcher, March 1, 2009; 38(2): 109 - 119. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]