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.

La construcción de producciones orales en la infancia a partir de imágenes realistas y no realistas / The construction of oral productions in childhood from realistic and unrealistic images

Resumen El objetivo de este trabajo fue examinar la construcción de narrativas de ficción por parte de niños/as de 5 y 6 años de edad a partir de imágenes con distinto nivel de realismo. Analizamos 49 relatos, 24 realizados a partir de imágenes realistas y 25 a partir de imágenes no realistas. Primero clasificamos las producciones en narraciones, descripciones y otras producciones, y analizamos el ordenamiento de las imágenes. La mayoría de los niños/ as que participaron en la condición no-realista construyeron narraciones e identificaron una imagen para el comienzo y otra para el cierre; mientras que los que observaron imágenes realistas construyeron mayormente descripciones y no las organizaron en secuencias. Luego realizamos un análisis de datos textuales consignando: recuento de palabras y segmentos, y recuento de tipos de palabras y segmentos; glosario de palabras y segmentos ordenados según su frecuencia; y respuesta característica (la más significativa de cada grupo). No se encontraron diferencias en el número de palabras y la cantidad de tipos de palabras utilizadas en cada producción, pero sí en las palabras características y en las respuestas que caracterizaron a cada grupo. En las descripciones se utilizaron más sustantivos, mientras que en las narraciones se utilizaron verbos y conectores causales. La respuesta característica de la descripción consistió en una exposición acerca de cada una de las imágenes por separado. La narración presentó un conflicto o estado emocional, una resolución y un cierre. Los resultados muestran que los niños/ as construyeron distintas producciones (narraciones o descripciones) según el tipo de imágenes presentadas.

Abstract The aim of this paper was to examine the creation of fictional narratives by 5 and 6 year-old children from images with different levels of realism. We analyzed 49 stories, 24 from realistic images and 25 from unrealistic images. First, the productions were classified into narratives, descriptions and other productions, and analyzed the arrangement of the images. Most of the children who participated in the unrealistic condition created narratives and identified one image for the beginning and another for the ending; while those who observed realistic images mostly made descriptions and did not arrange them into sequences. It was analyzed: number of words and segments and number of kinds of words; glossaries and segments of words sorted by frequency; characteristic responses (the most significant of each group). No differences were found neither in the number of words nor in the number of different word types used in each production. However, differences were found in the characteristic words and in the complete responses that characterized each group. More nouns were used in the descriptions, while verbs and causal connectors were used in the narratives. The characteristic response of the description consisted in a presentation of the images separately. The narrative introduced a conflict or emotional state, a resolution and a closure. The results showed that the children developed different productions (narrations or descriptions) according to the type of images they were exposed.

El rol de la instrucción en la comprensión simbólica temprana de mapas / The role of instruction in early comprehension of maps

Se informan los resultados del estudio del desarrollo de la comprensión simbólica de mapas por parte de niños pequeños. El propósito fundamental consistió en investigar el rol de la instrucción del adulto en el desarrollo temprano de dicha competencia. Se presentan dos estudios en los cuales se realizó una tarea de búsqueda en la que los niños debían utilizar un mapa para encontrar un juguete en una habitación pequeña. En el primer estudio se comparó la ejecución de dos grupos de niños de 30 y 36 meses, brindándoles instrucciones explícitas acerca de la relación mapa-habitación. Se pretendía conocer si dicha relación era susceptible de ser enseñada a los pequeños. Los resultados indicaron que a los 30 meses los niños no lograron el insight representacional, o sea comprender que el mapa y la habitación se hallan relacionados simbólicamente. A los 36 meses, los niños en su mayoría no resolvieron correctamente la primera subprueba, pero luego de recibir instrucción explícita, alcanzaron el insight representacional. En el segundo estudio se examinó a partir de qué edad los niños son capaces de comprender y utilizar la función simbólica de un mapa sin la instrucción del adulto. Se encontró que mientras a los 42 meses algunos niños fueron capaces de resolver la prueba, a los 46 meses la mayoría alcanzó el insight representacional. Esta investigación muestra claramente que la comprensión temprana de mapas no sólo depende de la edad; el andamiaje que proporciona el adulto, bajo la forma de instrucción, es también crucial en algunos puntos del desarrollo.

Very early in life children must learn to master a wide variety of symbolic systems and objects for a full participation in the culture, like letters, numbers, and pictures. The symbolic systems, like numbers or letters are elements that do not have significance on their own, but provide information when combined in systematic ways. Symbolic objects, on their own, are objects that represent, with different degrees of iconicism or similarity, real entities and provide and transmit specific information. Symbolic objetcs, then, have a dual reality, they are physical objects and, at the same time, they are symbols of the entity they represent. This double nature of symbolic objects is very hard to comprehend by very young children. Symbolic objects can be tridimensional, like scale-models, or bidimensional, as photographs or graphs. This research is focused in the study of the development of early symbolic comprehension of a particular bidimensional symbolic object: a map; specifically we study the role of instruction in this process. Maps can be found among the symbolic objects of a given culture. Like other symbolic objects, they amplify aspects of our perception, attention and cognition; their specific role consists in representing and making comprehensible spatial information. The purpose of this research is to explore if, when and how instruction could affect young children's understanding and use of maps. Specifically, we wanted to know if it is possible to teach very young children the symbolic function of a map, and, if so, when is this possible. An important factor in children's symbolic functioning is the nature and extent of adult informational support. Although we know a great deal about the relation between adult scaffolding and the understanding and production of language and symbolic play, we still know relatively little about the influence of this factor in other symbolic domains such as external representations. So far, no study has investigated the impact of direct instruction or teaching on the detection and use of objects as symbols. In this research a novel manipulation of instruction is proposed: explicit instruction. Explicit instruction implies that the experimenter not only provides complete and detailed information about the symbol-referent relation before the task begins, but also, if necessary, during the task the experimenter corrects and directly teaches the child how to employ the map in order to find the hidden object. The two studies presented in this paper employ a search task in which children have to use a map in order to find a hidden toy in a small room. The first study compares the performance of two age group children (30 months and 36-month-olds) with explicit instructions about the map-room relation. The aim of this study is to find out if it is possible to teach little children the symbolic function of a map. The results show that while 30-month-old children are not able to recognize the map-room relation at all, the majority of 36-month-olds children achieved representational insight after failing the first search and being explicitly taught how to use the map. The second study examines at what age children are capable of recognizing and using the symbolic function of a map without adult's instruction. It was found that while at 42 months old some children are able to solve the task with no instructions at all, at 46 months the majority of children achieve representational insight. This research clearly shows that the early comprehension of maps is not solely dependent of age and maturation, the scaffolding that adult instruction provides is also crucial at some points of development.