What a parent brings to the table: Young children writing with and without parental assistance

Twenty children aged 5 and 6 years were observed attempting to write a letter alone and with their mothers' assistance. Children produced more sophisticated products with adult mediation, using conventional spelling, writing longer messages, and using more mechanical details such as punctuation and salutations. Children's self-talk about the meaning of the message was associated with higher product quality in the solo task. Interactive talk about conventions (spelling, page placement, etc.) was associated with dyadic product quality. Children's rank order for message length and conventional details was maintained across tasks. Evidence of maternal fine-tuning of scaffolding behaviors in response to the child's independent level of print performance was revealed in a qualitative analysis of dyadic interaction. Most mothers appeared to have a sense of the developmental progression of writing skills.