Parental scaffolding and cognitive development in early childhood: Insights from a dynamic systems perspective.

Grounded in dynamic systems theory, which conceptualizes parent-child interactions as evolving systems of reciprocal influence over time, the main objective of this study was to examine which patterns of parent-child scaffolding in a problem-solving situation were associated with children's early cognitive development and to explore whether these patterns were influenced by prior child characteristics. A total of 193 mother-child dyads (109 girls) were observed during a number-image association task at 48 months. Children were predominantly White (95%) and of Canadian or European ethnic backgr