RESUMEN
Abstract Parental involvement in children's education is commonly accepted as beneficial. However, family social class plays a crucial role in the efficacy of homework help. In a comparative case study, a low-income immigrant family from Mexico and a middle-income family in Los Angeles were observed helping their children with math homework and were asked questions about goals, tutoring strategies, and beliefs about learning. Qualitative analysis focused on two effective teaching methods: scaffolding and productive struggle. The low-income mother with little formal education provided direct help rather than a scaffold, and disapproved of hard problems. However, an older sibling with more education than her mother used scaffolding and believed that difficult problems aid learning. In these respects, she resembled the college-educated middle-income mother. The sister exemplifies how older siblings in immigrant families provide bridges to educational achievement for younger siblings. We suggest effective ways for schools to involve parents who lacked educational opportunity themselves to participate in the education of their children.
Resumen La participación de los padres en la educación de sus niños es establecida como beneficiosa. Sin embargo, la clase social de la familia tiene una fuerte influencia sobre la eficacia de su ayuda con las tareas. En un estudio de caso comparativo, una familia inmigrante de México, de bajos ingresos, y una familia de Los Ángeles, de medianos ingresos, fueron observadas ayudando a sus niñas con deberes en matemáticas. Además, el investigador hizo preguntas sobre metas, estrategias de enseñanza y creencias sobre el aprendizaje. El análisis cualitativo se centró en dos métodos efectivos de enseñanza: proporcionar el aprendizaje de manera de andamio y estimular la lucha productiva. La madre de ingresos bajos proporcionó apoyo directo a su hija en lugar de proporcionar un andamio, y ella desaprobó los problemas difíciles; sin embargo, una hermana mayor con más educación que la madre proporcionó un andamio y creyó que los problemas difíciles ayudan al aprendizaje. En estos aspectos, la hermana mayor era similar a la madre de ingresos medios con educación universitaria. La hermana demuestra cómo hermanos mayores en las familias inmigrantes proporcionan puentes al éxito educativo para los hermanos menores. Sugerimos modos efectivos para que las escuelas puedan alentar a los padres con falta de oportunidades educativas a participar en la educación de sus hijos.
RESUMEN
A magnitude comparison deficit has been frequently observed in velocardiofacial syndrome (Del22q11.2). We hypothesized that this deficit extends to impairments in the acuity of the approximate number system (ANS). Three groups of children aged 8-14 years were investigated: Del22q11.2 children (n = 12), low cognitive ability children (LCA; n = 12), and matched typically developing children (TD; n = 28). All children were assessed with a simple reaction time task and symbolic and nonsymbolic number comparison tasks. To estimate the acuity of the ANS, the Weber fraction (w) was calculated from the nonsymbolic comparison task. The Del22q11.2 group exhibited a significantly higher w compared with the other groups. Importantly, no significant differences were found in w between the TD and LCA groups. The performance pattern of the Del22q11.2 group was similar to the TD group in the symbolic comparison task, and both of these groups had better performance than the LCA group. The impairment of ANS acuity observed in individuals with Del22q11.2 cannot be explained by deficits in general processing speed because no significant group differences were found in the simple reaction time task. These results suggest that lower acuity of the ANS should be added to the behavioral phenotype of Del22q11.2. The absence of impaired ANS acuity in the LCA group is consistent with the hypothesis that number sense is a relatively specific and autonomous domain. Investigations of low ANS acuity in mathematics learning difficulties and Del22q11.2 should be intensified...