ABSTRACT
This chapter describes an intervention program designed to enhance guided participation and intersubjectivity between adolescent mothers and children. It argues that literacy learning for young children occurs across a variety of different contexts and interactions. From these findings, the chapter posits that other mutual activities, including play and instructional projects, in addition to book reading may offer the richest potential for supporting children's early literacy development. It could be argued that the training of school-like behaviors overlooks the everyday routine involvement in literacy-related activity (play, conversations, drawing, writing) that is not captured in models of interaction based on didactic school practices. From this perspective then, literacy learning for families may occur across a variety of situations, each of which may require mutual adjustments that provide the basis of intersubjectivity between adults and children. This includes the implicit rules and demands and patterns of interaction that may either support or constrain literacy learning.
