Interactive Problem-solving of Gifted and Non-gifted Preschoolers With Their Mothers

Abstract

This study investigated differences in the verbal interactions of 14 gifted and 14 average-ability preschoolers and their mothers during three problemsolving tasks. Results indicated that mothers of gifted children were significantly more likely to encourage metacognitive strategies such as predicting consequences of intended actions, monitoring the ongoing activity and reality testing. Mothers of average children provided more direct solutions and talked more about child non-task behaviour. Gifted children showed greater verbal fluency and focused more often on multiple problem components but their verbal behaviour did not suggest child differences in autonomous metacognitive functioning. Sequential analyses of mother-child interaction patterns indicated that gifted preschoolers primarily used metacognitive tactics after maternal modelling, but also significantly more often as responses to less direct maternal prompts, suggesting increasing skill in child use of these tactics with decreasing maternal support. In keeping with Vygotskian theory, it is argued that 4-year-olds are in a transitional phase where social factors constrain both the internalisation and the coordination of cognitive tactics necessary for the construction of more mature problemsolving strategies.