Análisis de las Intervenciones de Bebés de 9 Meses durante la Lectura Compartida / Analysis of the Interventions of 9 Month-old Babies during Shared Storybook Reading

Resumen La lectura compartida es frecuente en la infancia. Sin embargo, la participación de infantes menores de un año en esta actividad ha sido poco explorada. Este trabajo describe y analiza las intervenciones de bebés de 9 meses en la lectura conjunta materno-infantil en hogares argentinos. Transcribimos y analizamos filmaciones realizadas por 10 madres. Clasificamos las intervenciones en: acción responsiva o espontánea; vocalización responsiva o espontánea; acción responsiva + vocalización; acción espontánea + vocalización. Los bebés realizaron mayoritariamente acciones espontáneas (con o sin vocalizaciones). Luego, clasificamos las acciones (con o sin vocalizaciones) en: convencionales (pasar la página, señalar) o manipulativas (morder, sacudir los libros); otras no orientadas (tomar otro objeto, mirar fuera del escenario). Encontramos que las acciones fueron principalmente manipulativas. Finalmente, clasificamos las acciones en: inespecíficas (morder el libro, sacudirlo) u orientadas (intentar agarrar los objetos representados). Predominaron las acciones inespecíficas. Los hallazgos muestran bebés sensoriomotores en exploración. Sin embargo, algunas intervenciones revelaron también un incipiente desarrollo simbólico al usar los libros convencionalmente y reconocer las imágenes como objetos simbólicos. La lectura compartida es un escenario en el que se accede a diversos sistemas de representación (imágenes, números, letras), permitiendo desarrollar tempranamente un potencial simbólico en contextos sociales relevantes.

Abstract Shared reading is a significant and frequent activity in early childhood. However, the interventions in this kind of activities by babies and infants under one-year have been little explored. The main objective of this work was to describe 9-month-old babies' interventions in reading situations with their mothers at Argentinian homes. The focus of the analysis was babies' actions during reading with their mothers. Ten mothers filmed shared reading sessions with their babies. Then we transcribed and analyzed babies' interventions in three levels. First, we classified the interventions in: responsive action, spontaneous action, responsive vocalization, spontaneous vocalization, responsive action + vocalization, spontaneous action + vocalization. Isolated vocalizations were rare. The babies performed mostly spontaneous actions (with or without vocalizations). Responsive actions were less frequent (with or without vocalizations). Second, we classified babies' actions (with or without vocalizations) in 1-conventional, like turn the page, point to the book, put the book in reading position, 2-manipulative, like bite, shake, put the book in the mouth, open and close the book, try to grab/suck/ touch objects represented in pictures, 3- other actions- actions not oriented to books, like shake another object present in the interaction or looking to some object or person outside the scene. We found that babies' actions were mainly manipulative. Finally, we categorized manipulative actions in 1- unspecific actions, like bite, shake, put the book in the mouth, open and close the book, and 2- pictures-oriented ones, like try to grab, suck, touch objects present in pictures. Unspecific actions predominated. Findings show sensory motor babies in exploration. Nevertheless, the presence of conventional actions and picture-oriented actions are signs of an incipient symbolic development. That is, babies use books conventionally and recognize pictures as symbolic objects. In sum, shared reading is one of the richest scenarios for early symbolic development. In this context babies and children access to diverse representational systems (words, pictures, numbers, letters). This activity allows children to development their symbolic potential in relevant social contexts.

Conocimientos sobre los aspectos formales y referenciales del dibujo, la escritura y los numerales en la lectura compartida entre madres y niños pequeños / Knowledge about the formal and referential aspects of drawing, writing and numerals during mothers and young children shared book reading

Los niños construyen conocimientos sobre los sistemas de representación externa en interacción con adultos que obran como mediadores de sus procesos cognitivos. Distintas investigaciones muestran que los niños reconocen el dibujo a partir de los 2 años y medio y pueden diferenciar entre dibujo, escritura y numerales alrededor de los 4 años. En este estudio se examinan los conocimientos sobre las propiedades formales y la función referencial de estos tres sistemas que niños de 2 años y medio y 4 años despliegan junto con sus madres durante la lectura compartida de un libro. Para ello se utilizó un libro que presenta en cada página dibujos de un animal, su nombre escrito y el numeral correspondiente a la cantidad de animales (1 a 9). Los análisis se centran en el foco de atención de las díadas, los aspectos del conocimiento notacional y las bases comunicativo-educativas de las interacciones, en función de la edad de los niños. Los resultados indican que las díadas centraron su atención en la función referencial del dibujo, como representación de la identidad del referente a los 2 años y medio, y de la identidad y la cantidad a los 4 años. Aunque la atención en la escritura y los numerales fue menor, las madres de los niños más pequeños brindaron información sobre las propiedades formales de los numerales, y las madres y los niños de 4 años elaboraron este aspecto del conocimiento de ambos sistemas. Se discuten estos resultados en relación con el potencial de la lectura compartida para la apropiación temprana del conocimiento notacional.

Children acquire knowledge about external representational systems in interaction with adults who operate as mediators of their cognitive processes. Several studies have shown that 2.5-year-old children are able to recognize drawings, and 4-year-old children can distinguish between drawing, writing and numerals. The present study focuses on a developmental analysis of the knowledge about the formal properties and the referential function of these three systems that 2.5- and 4-year-old children unfold with their mothers during shared reading sessions. The referential function is the representational relation between the system and the referent. Each system has a referential function that is the result of a social convention: figurative drawing depicts the identity and characteristics of the referent, writing is a graphic representation of oral language and numerals represent numerical information. The formal properties include the name of the representational systems and their graphic units, the form of the strokes, their spatial disposition and their compositional rules. Our specific goals were:(1) to establish which representational system isthe main focus of attention; (2) to describe and analyze whether and how mothers and children elaborate knowledge about the formal properties and referential function of the systems; (3) to understand how notational knowledge emerges describing the educative-communicative basis of the interactions; and (4) to compare the focus of attention, notational knowledge and the educative-communicative basis of interactions as a function of children's age. Twenty-six mothers and their 2.5- (n = 13) and 4-year-old children (n = 13) participated. They were given a book and told to look at it together. The book was specially designed for this study; it includes in each page drawings of an animal, its written name and the numeral for the number of animals depicted (1 to 9). We designed a system of categories with three levels of analysis, related to the specific goals of the study: focus of attention, notational knowledge and educative-communicative basis. We performed non-parametric statistical analysis: Wilcoxon test and Mann- Whitney's U test. Results show that dyads of both age groups focused their attention on drawings more than on writing and numerals. However, 4-year-old children and their mothers made significantly more utterances about writing and numerals than the other group. Attention to writing and numerals in the older group seemed to be guided by mothers' interest to teach those systems to their children. Dyads talked especially about the referential function of drawing, as a representation of the identity of the referent at 2.5 years of age and as a representation of the identity and quantity at 4 years. Although less attention was paid to writing and numerals, the youngest children's mothers provided information about the formal properties of numerals and the mothers and the 4-year-old children elaborated this aspect of knowledge of both representational systems. Furthermore, in the older group, dyads started to discuss the referential function of numerals. With regard to the educative-communicative basis of the interactions, the mothers of both age groups tended to request information about the referents of drawings more than to provide their children with this kind of information. The mothers in the 2.5-year-olds' group provided information about the formal properties of numerals, while in the 4-year-olds' group the mothers both requested and provided this kind of information. Finally, the formal properties of writing were elaborated only by mothers in the older group. We discuss these results in terms of the potential of shared reading for the early acquisition of notational knowledge.

Leitura compartilhada de livros e aprendizagem de palavras em crianças pré-escolares / Shared book reading and word learning in preschool children / Lectura compartida de libros y aprendizaje de palavras en niños en edad preescolar

A leitura compartilhada de histórias é uma forma eficiente de promover a aprendizagem de vocabulário por crianças, mas os processos básicos envolvidos nessa aprendizagem ainda precisam ser esclarecidos. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar a influência de dicas sociais na aprendizagem de palavras durante a leitura de livros, e se as novas relações palavras-figuras apresentadas nas histórias sustentariam um desempenho por exclusão posterior, diante de figuras desconhecidas. Duas histórias ilustradas não comerciais, contendo duas pseudopalavras cada, foram lidas com e sem a apresentação de dicas sociais para 12 crianças de 3 anos, em um delineamento de medidas repetidas. Sondas de emparelhamento, exclusão e nomeação avaliaram a aprendizagem dessas pseudopalavras. O desempenho das crianças não diferiu em relação à aprendizagem das pseudopalavras nas duas condições de leitura (com apresentação de dica social e sem dicas), e todas apresentaram desempenho por exclusão nas sondas planejadas. Esses resultados confirmam que a situação de leitura compartilhada promove aprendizagem de novas relações entre palavras e figuras, mas deixam em aberto o papel de dicas sociais nesse processo.

Shared story reading is an effective way to promote the learning of vocabulary for children, however, the basic processes involved in this learning have yet to be clarified. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of social cues on word learning while reading books, and whether the new word-picture relationships presented in the stories sustain subsequent performance by exclusion, given unknown pictures. Two non-commercial illustrated stories, containing two pseudowords each, were read with and without the presentation of social cues for 12 children, 3 years of age, in a repeated measures design. Matching, exclusion and naming probes evaluated the learning of these pseudowords. The performance of the children did not differ in relation to the learning of the pseudowords in both reading conditions (with presentation of social cues and without cues), and all presented performance by exclusion in the planned probes. These results confirm that the shared reading situation promotes the learning of new relationships between words and pictures, however, do not verify the role of social cues in this process.

La lectura compartida de libros es una manera eficaz de promover el aprendizaje de vocabulario de los niños, pero los procesos básicos que intervienen en este aprendizaje todavía necesitan ser aclarado. El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar la influencia de pistas sociales en el aprendizaje de palabras durante la lectura de libros, y se nuevas relaciones nombre-figuras presentado en las historias, mantienen subsecuenteresponder por exclusión, delantenuevas figuras desconocidas. Dos historias ilustradas no comerciales, que contienen dos pseudopalabras cada uno, fueron leídas con y sin la presentación de pistas sociales a 12 niños de 3 años. Pruebas de aprendizaje, exclusión y respuesta verbal evaluaron el aprendizaje de estos pseudopalabras. El desempeño de los niños no difirió en relación al aprendizaje de la pseudopalabra, bajo dos condiciones de la lectura, pero todos mostraron respuesta de exclusión en las pruebas previstas. Estos resultados confirman que la situación lectura compartida promueve el aprendizaje de vocabulario, pero dejan abierta la función de laspistas sociales en este proceso.