Maternal Scaffolding of Preschoolers' Writing Using Tablet and Paper-Pencil Tasks: Relations with Emergent Literacy Skills

Mothers play a key role in scaffolding children's writing using traditional tools, such as paper and pencil. However, little is known about how mothers scaffold young children's writing using touch-screen tablets (e.g., iPads) and the associations between maternal scaffolding and emergent literacy. Mother-child dyads (N = 47; M child age = 3.43 years) were video recorded as they wrote words using an iPad and a paper and pencil. Maternal print and grapho-phonemic mediation behaviors were measured. Children were assessed on letter name and letter-sound knowledge, letter writing and name writing, and print concepts. No significant differences were found in the level of maternal mediation provided in the tablet or paper-pencil condition. Maternal print mediation was positively associated with letter name and letter-sound knowledge and emergent writing in the tablet and paper-pencil conditions. Grapho-phonemic mediation was significantly related to children's understanding of letter-sound correspondence and print concepts in the paper-pencil condition, but not the tablet condition. Supporting parents in using grapho-phonemic mediation during tablet use to foster early literacy learning should be considered in future research.