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The impact of scaffolding and overhearing on young children's use of the spatial terms between and middle*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2011

EMILY K. FOSTER  and
ALYCIA M. HUND
EMILY K. FOSTER
Affiliation:
Illinois State University
ALYCIA M. HUND*
Affiliation:
Illinois State University
*
Address for correspondence: amhund@ilstu.edu
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Abstract

The primary goal was to specify the impact of scaffolding and overhearing on young children's use of the spatial terms between and middle. Four- and five-year-old children described the location of a mouse hidden between two furniture items in a dollhouse with assistance from a parent. Children's use of between and middle increased significantly across trials, and in concert, parents' directive scaffolding involving middle decreased across trials. In the second study, three common scaffolding types (Between Directive, Middle Directive, non-directive) were compared with a no prompt condition by having children receive prompts from a doll and with overhearing conditions in which children overheard conversations between two adult experimenters containing between or middle. Children's use of between and middle was much more frequent following directive prompting than following non-directive prompting, no prompting, or overhearing. Moreover, children showed some evidence of using between and middle in response to non-directive prompting and overhearing.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , March 2012 , pp. 338 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

[*]

We thank Gregory Braswell, Jeffrey Wagman, and the editors and reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts. We also thank Adam Craig, Kileigh Fleming, Kathleen Hines, Jenna Krause, Brittni Lauinger, Stacey McLellan, Chelsea Mueller, Cassidy Powell, Jayme Jones, Kate Swinden and Danielle Zimmerman for assistance with data collection, transcription and coding. We thank Advocate BroMenn Childcare Center by Rogy's, Alphabet Soup Academy, Blooming Grove Academy, Christ the King Community Preschool, Clubhouse Childcare Center, Cornerstone Christian Academy, Discovery World Childcare Center, Illinois State University Childcare Center, Katie's Kids Learning Centers, Little Jewels Learning Center, The Mulberry School, Rogy's Learning Place, Scribbles Center for Learning, Tomorrow's Promise Learning Center and Wesley Bright Beginnings, as well as all of the children and parents for their enthusiastic cooperation.

References

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