Maternal scaffolding and home stimulation: Key mediators of early intervention effects on children’s cognitive development.

Abstract

This study contributes to the understanding of how early parenting interventions implemented in low- and middle-income countries during the first 2 years of children's lives are sustained longitudinally to promote cognitive skills in preschoolers. We employed path analytic procedures to examine 2 family processes-the quality of home stimulation and maternal scaffolding behaviors-as underlying mechanisms through which a responsive stimulation intervention uniquely predicted children's verbal intelligence, performance intelligence, and executive functioning. The sample included 1,302 highly disadvantaged children and their mothers living in rural Pakistan, who from birth participated in a 2-year, community-based, cluster-randomized, controlled trial designed to promote sensitive and responsive caregiving. Family processes were assessed at 2 developmental time points using parent reports, ratings of home environments, and observed parent-child interactions. Cognitive skills at age 4 were assessed using standardized tests. Controlling for socioeconomic risk (e.g., wealth, maternal education, food insecurity) and individual factors (e.g., gender, growth status), the quality of current home stimulation as well as both earlier and concurrent measures of maternal scaffolding independently mediated the intervention effects on cognitive skills at age 4. In addition, the intervention had a significant direct effect on executive functioning and performance intelligence over and above significant family processes and other covariates. We highlight implications for future program design and evaluation studies. (PsycINFO Database Record

Poverty's Impact on Children's Executive Functions: Global Considerations

“…Families in poverty have fewer financial resources to invest in enriching materials, resulting in inequalities in EF development across SES (family investment model; Conger & Donnellan, ); this may be exacerbated by “book deserts” observed in low‐income U.S. neighborhoods (Neuman & Moland, ), or reduced access to print in LMICs with many remote areas (Spaull & Taylor, ). However, these findings suggest an EF intervention target for low‐SES communities; an intervention program to offset the effects of poverty by providing cognitively stimulating environments has demonstrated positive effects on EF in children in Pakistan (Obradović, Yousafzai, Finch, & Rasheed, ). Such interventions can be applicable worldwide.…”

A Novel Theoretical Life Course Framework for Triggering Cognitive Development across the Lifespan

“…This notion suggests that, generally speaking, the best time to intervene may be during young adulthood. However, some children, and even infants, may exhibit some (perhaps all) of these brakes [e.g., Obradović et al, 2016]. The ideas from our framework could be applied to both aging adults and typically developing younger learners, as well as perhaps learners with developmental disabilities.…”

“…More recent research has demonstrated how and when infants and children learn from people [e.g., Koenig & Sabbagh, 2013], as well as characterizing the nature of "scaffolding" and its effects in finer detail [Harris & Almutairi, 2016;van de Pol, Volman, & Beishuizen, 2010]. For disadvantaged children, a scaffolding intervention with the primary caregiver increases basic cognitive skills, as well as academic abilities [Obradović et al, 2016]. For adults, learning can often be self-paced or computerized, which may lead to some gains [e.g., Dunlosky et al, 2007;Mishra, de Villers-Sidani, Merzenich, & Gazzaley, 2014].…”

“…This factor refers to incrementally increasing the difficulty of the to-be-learned items based on the learner's abilities [e.g., Obradović, Yousafzai, Finch, & Rasheed, 2016;Vygotsky, 1978]. Developmental psychology has accepted for decades that scaffolding is a critical factor promoting cognitive development, especially when children are faced with a situation that is beyond their current abilities [e.g., Wu et al, 2011].…”

Maternal scaffolding and toddlers' active joint engagement during play: Moderating effects of toddlers' temperamental activity

“…Maternal cognitive stimulation, such as asking questions, naming objects, and giving directions, is also associated with 2‐year‐old toddlers' participation and responses during play (Valentino et al, ). Similarly, it has been demonstrated that responsive stimulation by mothers, such as sensitivity to the child, reinforces 15 to 24‐month‐old toddlers' executive functioning and cognitive and language development and encourages more engagement in complex play (Fiese, ; Obradović, Yousafzai, Finch, & Rasheed, ; O'connell & Bretherton, ). To our understanding, there is a dearth of research in Asian contexts examining the effects of maternal scaffolding on toddlers' active and joint engagement during play.…”