Actividades en el contexto familiar y percepción de las capacidades infantiles

Resumen

La perspectiva ecológica sobre el desarrollo infantil enfatiza el estudio de los contextos en que transcurre la vida del niño. En este artículo presentamos una investigación sobre la relación entre las actividades que realizan dos niños en el contexto familiar y la percepción del desarrollo que tienen sus madres. Así, asumimos que existe una relación entre ambos aspectos, de modo que las madres que perciben a sus hijos con más posibilidades tienden a actuar con ellos en niveles de distanciamiento máximo. Los datos fueron obtenidos mediante la escala Beller que fue administrada dos veces en un espacio de tiempo de 10 meses y la grabación systemática en vídeo de todas las actividades realizadas por nuestros sujetos en el contexto familiar durante cuatro días. Los resultados parecen confirmar la relación establecida entre ambos aspectos y, en las conclusiones, discutimos sus implicacionespara el desarrollo infantile.

Abstract

The ecological view of child development stresses the study of contexts in which the child's life take place. In this article we present a study on the relationship between activities carried out by two children within the family context, and the mothers' perception of the children's development. We assume that there is a relationship between the two, in that a mother who realizes that her child has greater possibilities will tend to provide the child with greater stimulation. Data were obtained by means of the Beller Scale which was applied twice with a ten-month interval between sessions, and systematic video recording of all activities carried out by the subjects within the family context on four separate days. The results seem to confirm the relationship between the mother's perception and the child's development. There is a brief discussion on the implications of this fact in the general subject of child development at the end of the article.

Extended summary

Within the subject of Developmental Psychology, some of the points of view defended by the ecological perspective have become popular in recent years. This is equally true of aspects related with child development and with the different contexts in which children's life takes place. From this perspective the study of development contexts is not limited to microgenetic research of child-adult interactive situations, but also includes the study of activities which the different participants carry out from different levels of analysis. These different levels involve: The study of physical and social simulation, etc.; an analysis of parental beliefs, ideas, and expectations; knowledge of the social organization in which the life of the child takes place, etc. In Spain, numerous studies on family and school background have become available in recent years. In general, these studies show close relationships between a child's development and background characteristics in that interactive situations in certain contexts favour child development more than others. Palacios (1987) used the term «Perceived Area of Development» to conceptualize the fact that low expectations on the part of the adult in turn imply that the child is not encouraged beyond his/her present limitations.

This study, on the interactions between two mothers and their children, provides an example of the existence of different types of interactions, as well as showing the effect of the mothers' perception of their children's development. This last point is briefly discussed.

Data was gathered at three different age points. First, data on the family background was gathered-using the HOME scale and a parental questionnaire on their ideas and beliefs-and mothers' awareness of their children's by means of the BELLER scale. Second, five months later each child was videotaped carrying out a number of activities during the course of a day. Children were filmed on four different occasions during a two month period. Third, another five months later, mothers' awareness of their children's development was once again evaluated.

All the activities carried out by the children were analyzed according to their content (language, logic, motor activity, etc.). Adult-child interactions were studied by means of a set of categories related with “stimulation development”.

One of the mothers in the study was more involved in joint activity with her child than the other, and also provided greater diversification of activities. This mother also obtained higher scores than the other did in stimulation development. When both the HOME scale and parental questionnaire on ideas and beliefs are considered jointly, the second mother seems to have obtained very low scores in items associated with learning and academic stimulation. When both mothers are compared in terms of joint activity with their children, the first mother is capable of encouraging her child beyond the situation in progress, while the second mother is not able to do the same.

If the mothers' awareness of their children's development is considered, the score obtained by the first mother increases considerably during the ten month period spanning the two extreme measurement point; while the second mother shows far fewer changes. This seems to indicate that the “Perceived Area of Development” shown by the second mother is low, which in turn means that she does not provide very challenging situations for her child or initiate many joint activities. This mother therefore does not stimulate her child's development to a great extent. On the other hand, the perceived development (or expectations) shown by the first mother correlates with the child's behaviour.

It is difficult to determine whether mothers' perception of their children's abilities is due to the type of joint activities carried out or if on the other hand it is due to their own beliefs or expectations of development. It is nevertheless important to point out that result of this study are interpreted as indicating that there is an important relationship between the things that mothers engage in with their children and how in turn the children are perceived by their mothers.

Palabras clave:

• Contexto
• desarrollo
• percepción de las capacidades

Keywords:

• Context
• development
• perception of capacities