[Characteristics of mother-child collaboration at 48 months in two number-related tasks]

Preschoolers' number related skills and maternal guidance used to introduce and foster the acquisition of these skills were examined in 193 48-month-olds. Mother-child collaboration was observed during two number-related tasks: a dot-to-dot drawing task and a matching number representations task. Patterns of responsibility sharing in task resolution were coded from videos, using a cross-classification strategy adapted from Parent et al. (2000). Using mother-child interactions as a means to assess early numeracy skills, we replicated past findings obtained when child numeracy skills were assessed autonomously (Baroody & Dowker, 2003; Sinclair, 1988). Results also indicate that mothers adjust their support and the demands of the task to meet their child's skill level. In addition, promoting an enjoyable affective climate and fostering child motivation to complete the task appeared to be a predominant aspect of maternal guidance. Together, these results support the relevance of evaluating children's numeracy skills in a social context and emphasize the importance of taking into account affective dimensions of mother-child interactions when evaluating the development of new cognitive skills.