ABSTRACT
Everyone who intervenes in another’s learning decides on the nature of the intervention based on an assessment of learning needs at the time. Parents make judgements about learning, and shape the next interactions with their children to build on that learning, informed by what they think or know to be the next step in learning. For example, young children’s approximations in speech and language are often followed by an acknowledgement from the adult and a correct version of the word or phrase. Two-word utterances are often followed with full sentence models of the same meaning, so that the child’s language is extended. As social beings, we do this instinctively and we do it constantly within our interactions to support the learning and development of the younger members of our families. The complex process of assessing learning needs and responding to them based on understanding of development can be unconscious and informal, as it is in families, or can be more deliberate, as it is in the formal practices of professional teaching.
