María Belén Gariboldi & Analía Salsa
Instituto Rosario de Investigaciones en Ciencias
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Mothers and children performed together one of this
tasks: book reading and graphic production.
(1) Does dyad’s attention to drawings, writing and
numerals vary between tasks?
(2) Which aspects of representational knowledge
(the formal properties or the referential function) do
dyads elaborate upon during each task?
BACKGROUND
•Formal Properties. Name of each system, graphic
units, types of marks, spatial disposition and
composition rules.
•Referential Function. What each system represents.
• Children learn representational knowledge when
they take part in sociocultural practices with adults
(Rogoff et al, 2003; Vygotsky, 1978).
• Task constrains (conditions of representational use,
stimuli presentation, context of task demands) have an
impact on the knowledge that children display (Klein et
al, 2009; Martí & Garcia-Mila, 2010).
• Several home activities may foster children’s learning
about drawing, writing and numerals. We compared
the representational knowledge elaborated when
mothers and children performed together two tasks
with different constrains.
Task Reading
30 mothers with their
30 mothers with their 30-
Participants (n = 15) or 48-month-old
children (n = 15).
A book with pictures of an
animal, its written name and the A sheet of paper and
Materials
numeral for the number of some pencils.
animals (1 to 9) on each page.
“Make a drawing of the
Goal of
“Look at the book together”
the task
References
Klein, E., Teubal, E. & Ninio, A. (2009). Young Children’s Developing Ability to produce notations in Different Domains —
Drawing, Writing, and Numerical. In C. Andersen, N. Scheuer, M. del P. Pérez Echeverría & E. Teubal (Coords.), Representational
systems and practices as learning tools, 39-58.
E-mail: gariboldi@irice-conicet.gov.ar
de la Educación (CONICET-UNR), Argentina
CODING AND ANALYSIS (2) Reading task: In both age
Events: fragments of interactions in which dyads alluded to specific information groups, dyads elaborated mostly
about the formal properties or the referential function of drawing, writing or numerals. upon the RF of drawings. They
Levels of analysis. talked about their FP of writing
(1) Focus of attention. Drawings, Writing or Numerals.
and numerals, especially in the
(2) Representational knowledge. Formal Properties or Referential Function.
oldest group.
Focus of Representational Production task: Dyads of the
Code Example of event
Attention Knowledge 30-m-o group elaborated upon
Mother: - What is that? (Pointing at a drawing). the RF of the three
Referential Function DRF
Child: - A cow.
representational systems. In the 48-
Drawings
Formal Properties DFP
Mother: - You have to make a drawing. m-o group, dyads talked about
Child: - (produces a scribble).
both aspects of drawings, writing
Referential Function WRF Mother: - And I am going to write your name here. Francesca. and numerals.
Mother: - Do you know any of them? (Pointing at the letters). Comparison: In both age
Writing
Formal Properties WFP Child: - My letter! groups, reading dyads focused
Mother: - Yes, your letter.
more in the RF of drawings than
Mother: - How old are you? production dyads. Dyads of both
Referential Function NRF Child: - (shows four fingers) age groups elaborated upon the
Numerals Mother: - Four.
RF of writing in the production task
more than in the book reading.
Formal Properties NFP Child: - And that is number two (pointing at the numeral 2).
Events related to the RF of numerals
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION were higher in the production task
Dyads elaborated more events in the book reading than in the production task, in than in the book reading only in the
both groups: 30- (U = 47.5, p = .007) and 48-month-old (U = 59.5, p = .028). youngest group.
There were more events pertaining the FP of drawings in the production task than in the
(1) Attention to drawings was higher during the reading than in the production
task, in both age groups. reading one. There were no significant differences on events pertaining the FP of writing and
Dyads of both groups paid more attention to writing in the production task than in numerals between tasks.
the reading one, although differences were significant only for the youngest group.
There were no significant differences in attention to numerals between both tasks, Task constrains affect the joint construction of representational knowledge. In
Production in any age group. both age groups, attention given to drawings varied across tasks. The reading
task promoted more events pertaining the identity and the quantity of the
animals depicted. In the production task, dyads talked about the referents they
30- (n = 15) or 48- wanted to represent and the mothers named the scribbles that children were
month-old children doing as ‘drawings’.
(n = 15).
The instructions given could be responsible for the differences between tasks in
attention to writing, especially in the youngest group: Only a few dyads talked
about writing in the reading task, while the aim to represent the child’s name led
production dyads to elaborate mainly upon the referential function of this system.
There were no significant differences in knowledge about numerals between
reading and production. In both tasks, dyads talked mostly about the formal
child and write her properties of numerals, naming the system or its units.
name and age”
Acknowledgment: Funding for this project was provided by ANPCyT (PICT 2012 Nº 1319).
Rogoff, B., Paradise, R., Mejía Arauz, R., Correa-Chávez, M. & Angelillo, C. (2003). Firsthand learning through intent participation,
Martí, E. & Garcia-Mila, M. (2010). Progresos en la diferenciación funcional entre
dibujo, escritura y numerales en niños de 4 a 7 años. Estudios de Psicología, 31, Annu. Rev. Psychol., 54, 175–203.
339-352. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University