| The purpose of this study is to understand how mothers and children interact with each other during play in the playgroup and at home. Since context makes interactional features of play meaningful, the playgroup was the main focus and attention was also given to how mothers interact with each other and with other children. How interactions in the playgroup create context is important to understand mother-child play as is looking at mother-child play at home to understand interactional patterns in greater depth. The connection between the play interactions and mothers' beliefs about child development and play is an additional focus.;The findings sowed that the playgroup culture (e.g., rules and rituals) was on American cultural values. Mothers from other countries adjusted their behaviors but they also continued to behave according to their home cultural values. In the playgroup, mothers formed small groups based on their racial/cultural backgrounds and they interacted with the mothers who had similar backgrounds. This segregation led to lesser degrees of communication and interaction among the mothers, which in turn' limited children's interactions. When the mothers played with other children, they tended to limit their interactions, for instance by giving short answers to the children's questions or by giving directives or instructions when children requested their help. When their own children attempted to involve themselves into others' play, the mothers tried to channel their children's attention to something else. The data from the observations and interviews indicated that lack of communication and interaction limited mothers' abilities to create their own playgroup culture in which they could feel comfortable in reacting and responding to others' behaviors.;The playgroup and home observations revealed that mothers played with their children using different strategies (e.g., demonstration, direct teaching). Children seemed to respond best when their mothers showed consistency in their strategies. Children also looked for variety in mothers' responses. When mothers used too much instruction, children became less responsive in play. Children became more responsive when they felt confident in completing tasks or in answering their mothers' questions. Both mothers and children seemed to read and interpret each other's signals to change the theme of the play or to continue the play.;The data from the home observations and interviews showed that the relationship among beliefs was complex and that the relationship between mothers' beliefs and behaviors was not clear-cut. For instance, all four mothers stated that all types of play and play materials were valuable and they did not have any preference for more educational play or toys even as they acknowledged the importance of play as a vehicle to learn new things. Also, the mothers mentioned the importance of improving creativity, curiosity, individuality, and independence in children but tended to use direct teaching strategies. They imposed their agendas during dyadic play instead of following the children's initiatives and interests as they played together. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
