Yves Prêteur

Family education, child-parent interactions and child development

We examine the influence of family educational practices on the interaction and communication competencies of four-year-old children. The child, as an active player in its own development, has to manage intra- and inter-personal conflicts in the socio-cognitive and socio-affective registers. We postulate that parental educational practices orient the relationship which each child develops with the world and with itself. Family educational practices were evaluated by means of two questionnaires (general education, specific education). The child’s communication competence was assessed on the following levels: intrapsychic dynamics (projective, tests, social competence and self-representation scales); oral and written communication competence (typological analysis (250 children and their parents). The results show that sociocultural contexts interact with family educational concepts and practices to influence the development of self-representations and the capacity for oral and written communication. General family education modulates the intrapsychic personal dynamics of young children, while specific family education is more responsible for influencing behaviours linked to school activities. A top-down hierarchical analysis was used to differentiate between these two forms of communication competence and the patterns adopted by the child within the diversity of family educational contexts.RésuméLes auteurs étudient l’influence des pratiques éducatives familiales sur les compétences à interagir et à communiquer chez l’enfant de quatre ans. L’enfant, acteur de son développement, est amené à gérer des conflits intra et interpersonnels dans les registres socio-cognitifs et socio-affectifs. les auteurs postulent que les pratiques éducatives parentales orientent le rapport au monde et à soi élaboré par chaque enfant. Les pratiques éducatives familiales sont évaluées à l’aide de deux questionnaires (éducation générale, éducation spécifique). Les compétences de l’enfant à communiquer sont appréhendées aux niveaux: de la dynamique intrapsychique (épreuves projectives, échelles de compétences sociales et de représentations de soi; des compétences à communiquer à l’oral et à l’écrit.

Conceptualization of the writing system and knowing how to use a children’s book at preschool age as predictors of reading and writing acquisition in the first year of primary school: A comparative study between France and Germany

The aim of this study is to validate (in a socio-constructivist perspective) the relevance of preschool internal predictors regarding reading and writing acquisition in the first year of primary school. This longitudinal study is also a comparative study between the educational systems in France and Germany.Information for the study was collected among 170 children of preschool age. 110 of these children were interviewed a second time in their first year at primary school. Half of these children were French and the other half German. The two groups were matched according to social background, sex and the teaching method used in primary school. The children in both age groups were interviewed individually to assess their reading and writing abilities.The results show a definite interindividual heterogeneity in reading and writing skills as from preschool age. The difference in levels is even more marked in the first year of primary school. This development in a child’s knowledge of reading and writing is closely related to the educational context in which he or she grows up.

How french and German children of preschool age conceptualize the writing system

As a continuation of research carried out by E. Ferreiro, we adopted a socio-constructivist approach to the question of how young children of 5–6 years of age conceptualize the writing system taking into account both their social background and their preschool system of education.Our sample was made up of 308 children of preschool level; 225 French children and 83 German children were asked to write a series of words without the help of a model. p The results we obtained confirmed our hypotheses: the pedagogical activities used in the French infant schools did not help the children to conceptualize the writing system better than the game activities (which had nothing to do with writing) used in the German kindergartens.Furthermore, we found that the socio-cultural background played an important role in both countries.The influence of the prevailing ideas about teaching and learning how to write, based on maturationism and empirism-associationism, are discussed with reference to the constructivist model.