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The Literacy of Interaction:

Are Infants and Young Children Receiving a
“Mental Diet” Conducive for Future Learning?

Pnina S. Klein
School of Education
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat-Gan, Israel

Abstract: There is a plethora of research on environmental effects on the development of

infants and young children, and a general consensus regarding several basic requirements
for quality of early education and care. However, there are still many questions that re-
main relatively unanswered, particularly in relation to parental teaching behavior, which
is one of the major objectives of adult-child interactions. Three main types of such ques-
tions are as follows:
1. What are the specific processes within adults’ teaching (mediation) behavior in in-
teractions with young children that may have an effect on their potential to learn
from new experiences?
2. How do these processes affect children’s flexibility of mind (readiness to learn)?
3. What are the differential expressions and potential effects of these components on
children with special needs and with populations of children and families in dif-
ferent cultures?
Possible answers to these questions are suggested in this paper from the theoretical
perspective of a developmental mediation approach, focusing on the quality of adult-child
interaction and on ways to understand and enhance it. Implications for early education
policy are discussed in light of current research.

Are Infants and Young Children Receiving a

“Mental Diet” Conducive for Future Learning?
One of the central challenges of education in the 21st century is to prepare chil-
dren to live in a rapidly changing world, requiring constant adjustment and flexibility
of mind. The latter may be defined as the capacity to benefit from new learning expe-
riences, or as readiness to learn. There is a general consensus, based on extensive re-
search documentation, that adult-child interactions are of central importance and that
quality care of young children should consist of a mental diet including warmth, nur-
turance, and stability (for example, see the review by Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). This

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124 PNINA S. KLEIN

generalization can be made despite marked heterogeneity of children, their families

and the education and care service they receive. In light of all the latter, it seems
highly important to focus on variables that represent the quality of that interaction in-
cluding variables of adults’ teaching behavior (mediation), which constitute a univer-
sal major component of adult-child interactions. Despite the consensus in child devel-
opment literature regarding the important role played by adult-child interactions,
research on adults’ teaching behavior in interactions with young children is still
scarce.
This paper focuses on adult-child interactions, particularly on adults’ teaching be-
havior in their interactions with very young children and on the potential effects of
these behaviors on children’s readiness to learn. There is a theory-based model and
research supporting the assumption of causal relationships between certain types of
behavior or characteristics of adult-child interaction that affect children’s social-
emotional and cognitive behavior and that create learning experiences that are poten-
tially contributive to children’s flexibility of mind (Feurstein, 1980; Vygotzky, 1978).
The role of these factors has been studied in various cultures and with different pop-
ulations of children and families with special needs (Klein, Wieder, & Greenspan,
1987, Klein, 1996; Klein & Alony, 1993; Klein, 2001b; Klein & Rye, 2004; Chis-
wanda, 1997). In these studies, mediational behaviors of parents (teachers or other
adults) were defined, and their frequency and manner or style of appearance were
identified. The identified mediational behaviors were found to be significantly related
to children’s learning processes and consequently to their cognitive and social-
emotional behavior (Feuerstein, 1979, 1980; Tzuriel, 1999; Klein, 1996; Klein, Feld-
man, & Zarur, 2003; Klein & Rye, 2004). This effect was explained as a consequence
of changes occurring in children’s need systems, including, for example, the need to
focus and perceive things clearly; the need to investigate things and to ask questions;
to make associations between things; to compare and contrast; to complete a task or
an action; to please others; to succeed at an objective; and to organize and to plan ac-
tivities. How does such a need system develop?

From Theory to Research and Practical Implications

There is a theoretical base (Feuerstein, 1979, 1980) and empirical data (Klein,
Wieder, & Greenspan, 1987; Klein, 1988, 1991; Tzuriel, 1999) suggesting that spe-
cific characteristics of adult interaction with children constitute mediational behavior
and may affect children’s predisposition to learn from new experiences. Mediated
learning, as distinct from direct learning through the senses, occurs when the environ-
ment is interpreted for the child by another person who understands the child’s needs,
interests, and capacities, and who takes an active role in making components of that
environment, as well as past and future experiences, compatible with the child. Medi-
ation affects the individual’s present learning and may improve his or her opportunity
to learn from future experiences.
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The Literacy of Interaction 125

Elements of Mediation
Basic elements of what constitutes a teaching mediational interaction between a care-
giver and a young child have been identified (Feuerstein, 1979, 1980). The most salient
of these factors are empirically defined (Klein, Raziel, Brish, & Birenbaum, 1987; Klein,
Wieder, & Greenspan, 1987; Klein, 1988, 1991) and are presented in Table 1.
It was found that the factors of quality mediation predicted cognitive outcome
measures up to four years of age better than the children’s own cognitive test scores
in infancy, or other presage variables related to pregnancy, birth histories, and moth-
ers’ education (Klein, Wieder, et al. 1987). Similar findings were reported for a sam-
ple of very low birth weight infants (Klein, Raziel et al. 1987).
Intercorrelations between mothers’ mediational behaviors over time (when their
children were 6, 12, 24, and 36 months old), were moderate to high. The average in-
terjudge reliability for assessing these behaviors was considerably high in studies of
American families of low socioeconomic status (Klein, Wieder et al. 1987) and Israeli
mother-infant samples (Klein & Alony, 1993).
Similar studies were carried out in Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, USA, Sweden,
and Israel (Klein, 1996). A study designed to examine the sustained effects of modi-
fying the mother-infant mediational interaction on infants’ cognitive test performance
and behavior was carried out in Israel. This study will be referred to as the Israeli
follow-up study.
The research design of the Israeli follow-up study included random assignment to
the experimental and control groups; an observational assessment of maternal media-
tion; a baseline assessment of the infants’ developmental status, using Bayley’s Men-
tal Development Scales, prior to training mothers in mediational strategies; and a
follow-up evaluation of experimental versus control mothers and children one year
and three years after the termination of training.
The total study sample consisted of 68 families in a small, low income status urban
community in Israel, who were randomly assigned to an experimental and control
group. This community was singled out for intervention by the Ministry of Education
and the Office of Welfare due to the high proportion of children who had poor school-
readiness skills and a significant high school dropout rate.
Activities developed for the experimental group were based on the Mediational In-
tervention for Sensitizing Caregivers (MISC) process, which is described in detail
later in this article. These activities were designed to improve mothers’ mediation to
their children. The level of mediation was defined by the frequency of appearance, se-
quence and synchrony of maternal mediating behaviors, and their children’s respon-
siveness. Mothers were trained at home by paraprofessional “mediators” and super-
vised by professional developmental psychologists. Mothers were actually helped to
“read” their interactions with their children, to understand their own behavior and their
children’s responses, as well as the potential consequences of these interactions.
Intervention was terminated when mothers improved their mediation and could ver-
bally define the basic components of the parental behaviors targeted by the intervention.
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126 PNINA S. KLEIN

Table 1. Definitions and Examples of Basic Criteria of Parental Mediation and Affected Needs
Examples of Social-Emotional
Mediation Processes the Process Intellectual Needs Needs

1. Focusing
Any act or sequence of
acts of an adult that
appear to be directed
toward affecting a child’s
perception or behavior.
These behaviors are
considered reciprocal
when the infant or child
in the intervention
responds, vocally,
verbally, or nonverbally.
Making the environmental
stimuli compatible to the
child’s needs, e.g., bring-
ing closer, covering
distractions, repeating,
sequencing, grouping,
helping the child focus,
see, hear and feel clearly.
Need for precision in
perception (vs. scanning
exploration).
Need for precision in
expression.
Need to focus on and
decode facial and body
expressions of emotion.
Need to modify one’s
own behavior or the
environment in order to
mediate to others (to
make the other person
see or understand).

2. Exciting Expressing excitement Need to search for meaningful new experiences

Behavior that expresses
verbal or nonverbal
excitement, appreciation,
or affect in relation to
objects, animals, con-
cepts, or values.
vocally, verbally or non- (i.e., listen, look, taste, things that remind one of past
verbally over experiences, experiences).
objects, people, etc.
Need to respond in a way that conveys meaning and
Naming, identifying. excitement (sound, look and feel excited) and
meaningful activities.

3. Expanding Explaining, elaborating, Need to go beyond what Need to think about

Behavior directed toward
the expansion of a
child’s cognitive
awareness, beyond what
is necessary to satisfy
the immediate need that
triggered the interaction.
associating and raising meets the senses. Seek out
awareness to metacogni- further information through
tive aspects of thinking. exploration
Relating past present and Request information from
future experiences. other people and from
other sources.
Relating to physical,
logical, or social rules and Need to seek
framework. generalizations.
Need to link, to associate,
to recall past information
and anticipate future
experiences.
one’s own feelings and
the feeling of others
Need cause and effect
sequences in social
interaction.
Need to associate
between experiences, to
recall past information
and anticipate future
experiences.

4. Encouraging
Verbal or nonverbal
behavior that expresses
satisfaction with a child’s
behavior and that identi-
fies a specific component
or components of the
child’s behavior which
contribute to the experi-
ence of success.
Praise in a way that is
meaningful to the child.
Clear isolation and identi-
fication of the reasons for
success.
Well timed in relation to
the experience.
Need to seek more success
experiences.
Need to summarize one’s
own activities and deter-
mine what led to success.
Need to please others
and gain more mediated
feelings of competence.
Need to identify what
pleases different people.
Need to provide others
with mediated feelings
of competence.

5. Regulation Behavior
Behaviors that model,
demonstrate, and/or ver-
bally suggest to the child
regulation of behavior in
relation to the specific
requirements of a task, or
to any other cognitive
process required prior to
overt action.
Regulation with regard to
speed, precision, force,
and preferred sequence of
activities.
Need to plan before acting,
e.g., need to consider
possible solutions prior to
responding.
Clarifying goals, meeting
subgoals.
Need to pace one’s activities. the pace and intensity of
Need to regulate the level
of energy invested in any
given task.
Need to control one’s
impulses in social
situations.
Learn acceptable ways
of expressing one’s
emotions (i.e., regulate
one’s social responses to
anger and joy).
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The Literacy of Interaction 127

In the experimental group, these behaviors were represented by the criteria of mediation,
and in the control group, by basic aspects of a stimulating, responsive, non-punitive
environment.
Since mediation was found to affect children’s cognitive functioning (including
perception, elaboration, and expressive processes), it was expected that maternal me-
diation behaviors (e.g., focusing, showing affect, and expanding) would affect chil-
dren’s vocabulary and abstract reasoning and, in general, prepare children to perform
better in situations requiring “new learning,” such as tasks requiring immediate se-
quential memory. Thus, children’s cognitive performance was assessed using the fol-
lowing measures: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), the auditory reception,
visual reception, visual association, auditory association, and auditory sequential
memory of the Illinois Tests of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA), as well as the Beery
and Bucktanika test of visual motor integration. In addition, children’s behavior dur-
ing the play interactions with their mothers’ was video recorded and analyzed.
Comparison of the two groups on the separate components of each mediation fac-
tor, three years following the intervention, revealed that the mothers who participated
in the intervention, (i.e., learned to “read” their interactions with their children),
showed significantly more mediation behaviors (Klein & Alony, 1993).
Significant differences in favor of the children in this group were found on the
PPVT, auditory reception and auditory association measures. The average PPVT IQ for
the experimental group was 101 (SD = 15.5), and for the control group, 84 (SD = 14.1).
Of all factors of maternal mediation, mothers’ expanding and rewarding behaviors
were most frequently related to children’s cognitive performance. Within these two
types of behavior, maternal request for expansion of ideas (i.e., “Does it remind you
of anything?”, “What is it like?”) and mediation of competence with explanation
(rather than simply saying “Good,” “Fine,” etc.) were singled out as most significantly
related to the children’s cognitive performance at age four. These findings coincide
with those reported by Collins (1984), identifying the variable of “demandingness” as
one of the most essential determinants of the quality of “good” family environments.
Similarly, Heath (1983) suggests that demanding from children that they reconstruct
experiences verbally, (i.e., asking young children to tell about their experiences) may
enhance their thinking and language development. Children’s expressions of affect
were most significantly related to all criteria of maternal mediation, but mostly to ma-
ternal rewarding behaviors, maternal expansion of ideas, and maternal request for “af-
fect,” that is, attempts to arouse signs of excitement in relation to anything or anyone.
Focusing behavior in isolation from the other mediational behaviors (e.g., only
catching of attention) was not significantly related to any of the cognitive outcome
measures. A noteworthy relationship was found between the children’s performance
and the mothers’ nonverbal expression of feelings. Mothers’ expressions of feelings
were also found to be related to children’s spontaneous provision of rewards to others.
The mediational approach applied in the follow-up study was not designed to im-
prove children’s performance on specific cognitive tasks. Yet, three years following
the termination of the intervention, children in the experimental group outscored the
children in the control group with regard to language performance as measured by the
PPVT and two measures of verbal reasoning. These findings suggest that children
from poor families who participated in the intervention were brought well within the
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128 PNINA S. KLEIN

normal range of verbal performance. Mothers in the intervention group expressed

higher aspirations for their children’s intellectual growth, as well as a more flexible
and balanced view of the factors they thought were important for their children’s
future development. Provision of external rewards was traditionally criticized in edu-
cational literature (e.g., LeVine, 1980; Lepper, 1981). In the Klein and Alony (1993)
follow-up study, verbal or gestural praise contributed favorably to children’s cognitive
and social-emotional development, but only when it was accompanied by explana-
tions relating “success” to its causes or associating it with other experiences. Young
children depend on adults for mediation of competence. Quality mediation requires
recognition of children’s individual needs, including those related to the frequency, in-
tensity, and type of reward they may require.
It has been well established in psycho-educational literature that children from
poor families generally score lower on a variety of cognitive measures related to in-
telligence and academic performance as compared to middle-class children. Mothers’
intelligence or years of schooling were repeatedly pointed out as powerful predictors
of children’s cognitive performance. The following finding from the mediational in-
tervention and follow-up study is of special interest in view of the preceding facts. The
correlation between mothers’ years of schooling and their mediation to their infants
and young children prior to the intervention was almost identical to that found in the
intervention and the comparison group (for the intervention groups, r = .43, and for
the control group, r = .45). Three years following the intervention, the correlation be-
tween mothers’ years of schooling and the mothers’ mediation went down (to .21) in
the intervention group, while remaining almost constant (r = .42) for the comparison
group. Furthermore, the correlation between mothers’ years of schooling and chil-
dren’s Bayley’s Mental Development Scales for both groups prior to the intervention
was .36. Following the intervention, the correlation between mothers’ years of school-
ing and children’s PPVT scores was .23 for the intervention group and .41 for the com-
parison group. These findings suggest that the quality of maternal mediation can be
modified. Once modified, the link between mothers’ schooling and their behavior in
interactions with their children can be modified as well, resulting in blocking of the
commonly found link between mothers’ education and children’s cognitive achieve-
ments. Poor mothers (and other caregivers and educators) can improve their mediation
and contribute to their children’s cognitive development as well as middle-class moth-
ers. The effectiveness of the mediational approach with populations of very poor chil-
dren was demonstrated in Sri Lanka (Fugelsang & Chandler, 1996), in Indonesia
(Hundeide, 1996) and recently, following a 12-year intervention project, in Ethiopia
(Klein, 2001a; Klein & Rye, 2004).

Typical Profiles of Mediation in Special Populations

The mediational approach was used with populations of children with special
needs, including children born at very low birth weight (Klein, Raziel et al. 1987),
children with Down Syndrome, and very young gifted children (Klein, 1996). A spe-
cific pattern of mediation was frequently noted for parents who believed in their abil-
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The Literacy of Interaction 129

ity to help their children overcome their developmental problems and who were highly
motivated to act toward achieving that goal. For example, parents of very low birth
weight (VLBW) children showed disproportionately high frequencies of focusing be-
haviors which were unmatched by high frequencies of other mediational behaviors,
i.e., showing affect, expanding, encouraging, and regulation of behavior. It was as
though those parents were highly motivated to interact with their children but were not
aware of the need to associate meaning to whatever was focused on. As a result, they
did not provide them with meaningful sequences of mediation. Instead, they focused
and refocused their children’s attention on objects or people in their environment, but
did not enable them to use the focused attention in order to obtain meaning, expand
experiences, and experience success. Even brief mediational interventions with popu-
lations of VLBW children and their parents led to significant improvement in parental
mediation and consequently to the enhancement of cognitive performance of the chil-
dren (Klein, Raziel et al. 1987).
In a study on the development of pre-verbal communication, 80 dyads of parents
and infants, including 40 infants with Down Syndrome and 40 infants who were de-
veloping normally, the infants were followed from the age of 7 months to 22 months
(Klein & Rosenthal, 2002). The developmental patterns of pre-verbal communication
of the babies were matched with the profiles of mediation provided by their mothers.
Children with Down Syndrome were found to be jeopardized twice, once due to the
syndrome causing a slower rate of development, and again due to poor mediation pro-
vided by the mothers. Major differences between interactions of mothers with typi-
cally developing infants and the interactions of mothers with Down Syndrome infants
emerged around the age of 14–16 months. At that age, significant gaps were found
in the development of Down Syndrome infants as compared to typically developing
infants. Mothers of Down Syndrome infants showed an excess of focusing behavior
and regulation of behavior with minimal affecting and expansion (e.g., expressing
meaning, explaining, and making associations).
Modifications of the mediational approach are introduced to meet the special
needs of young children with PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorders). For exam-
ple, their parents are guided to mediate affect frequently and in an exaggerated man-
ner in order to open and close circles of communication with their children. In addi-
tion, they are helped to mediate affect by associating meaning with whatever the child
does, even if the child’s behavior seems unrelated to any intent or lacking in meaning.
These patterns of mediation are meant to create associations between actions and their
purpose and lead to the development of the spontaneous formation of such associa-
tions in the future (Greenspan & Wieder, 1996).
Parents of young gifted children appear to use a mediational style that is charac-
terized by higher frequencies of mediation in the form of questions rather than giving
of information. It appears that these parents repeatedly ask their children to verbally
reconstruct experiences they have had or to reply to questions about them. In other
words, parents of gifted children actively demand the “exercising” of their children’s
thinking (Moss, 1992).
Extreme poverty has been found to result in a general decrease in mediation, par-
ticularly in mediation of affect and expansion. Parents preoccupied with daily worries
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130 PNINA S. KLEIN

about the mere survival of their family may not have enough mental energy to invest
in expressions of excitement related to objects or events in the environment or to as-
sociate those experiences with others in the child’s past or future. Thus, it is possible
that the cycle of poverty is perpetuated, since one of the types of mediation most con-
ducive to cognitive development as well as school achievement, is missing in parental
mediation to these young children.

Cross-Cultural Differences in Styles of Mediation:

Analytical and Holistic Styles of Mediation
Two general styles of mediation, a Western, analytic style and a traditional, holis-
tic style, were identified following studies of mediational experiences in six cultures
(Klein, 1996). The analytical style is frequently used by parents in Western cultures
and is guided primarily by the objective of teaching the infant about objects available
in his or her environment. The holistic approach is typically used in the so-called “tra-
ditional societies” in developing countries (Hundeide, 1996). Parents do not attempt
to fragment experiences in an analytical way for the child. The child learns through
participation in the life experiences of the family and acquires the meaning of things
holistically. There are very few experiences of expansion; most interactions with
adults are not decontexualized (i.e., not explored beyond the immediate context).
These children may be well equipped to adjust to life in their traditional native com-
munity, but they are not ready to cope with the Western style of education that requires
experiences of analytic mediation. Western children are equally unprepared to live in
traditional societies, but their parents are generally less interested in this sort of cross-
cultural learning.

Interpersonal Variability in Mediation

In order to assess the type of mental diet received by young children in their daily
interactions with the adults around them, it is necessary to assess the characteristics of
a child’s day, the people he or she interacts with, and the kinds of toys or objects used
in those interactions. Different people may provide different profiles of mediation. It
is also possible that the same adult may provide a different type of mediation to one
child as compared to another. Thus, it is of interest to assess a child’s mental diet by
summing up all the experiences he or she has with adults. Some of the causes for vari-
ability in a child’s mental diet have been found to be related to the adult’s perception
of the child and of his or her own educational objectives in relation to that child. In
addition, different toys, objects, games or activities typically invite various profiles of
mediation. For example, reading a book frequently includes higher frequencies of af-
fecting and expanding, whereas playing “rough and tumble” may include more regu-
lation of behavior.
Children’s interactions with other children may also contribute to a child’s mental
diet. For example, 5-year-olds were found to mediate to their 3-year-old siblings using
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The Literacy of Interaction 131

focusing, affecting, regulation of behavior, and encouragement. However, their medi-
ation typically lacked expansion and encouragement with explanation (Klein, Feld-
man et al. 2003). Both of these types of mediational behaviors were found as deter-
minants of children’s future learning. Thus, children who spend most of their time
interacting with their siblings or other children may lack these important components
of their mental diet.
Current research on the application of developmental mediation focuses on match-
ing specific developmental profiles of infants and young children with the profile of
mediation that may be best suited to their needs within the context of their family,
community, and culture. In a sense, this is an attempt to plan a mental diet appropri-
ate for the changing needs of infants and young children as they develop.

Summary
Infants and young children require adult mediation in order to develop the poten-
tial to benefit from new experiences. Various patterns of mediation have been found
to be related to characteristic behaviors of infants and young children, reflecting the
needs to seek clarity in perception, to search for meaning, to seek information beyond
what could be perceived directly through the senses, to link between experiences
(spontaneous associations), to experience success, especially in social contexts, and
others. It is possible to enhance parents’ or teachers’ mediation through intervention,
and consequently to affect the mental development of infants and young children. Spe-
cific patterns of mediation were identified cross-culturally and in populations of chil-
dren with special needs. Learning to “read” these patterns (i.e., learning to use the lit-
eracy of interaction) may be helpful in planning suitable mental diets through quality
educational programs for young children. “Literacy of interaction” refers to sensitiza-
tion and consciousness-raising regarding key issues in the adult-child (parent-child,
caregiver-child, or teacher-child) interaction. In practice this means trying to raise the
adult’s awareness regarding his or her own basic philosophy of childrearing, percep-
tions of the child; of himself or herself as parent or teacher; of the child’s emotional
and cognitive needs; and how all these affect the interaction with the child, especially
the mediational interactions, namely the attempts to teach the child. The representa-
tion of all these components is referred to as the literacy of interaction representing a
child’s mental diet.
Most of the decisions of educational policymakers focus on what is done, rather
than on how it is done in the teaching-learning interaction. The developmental appro-
priateness of educational programs for young children is frequently assessed in terms
of outcome measures, primarily including measures of achievement, skills and abili-
ties, and rarely involving a focus on how the process of adult-child interactions poten-
tially affect children’s readiness to learn in the future. This paper suggests that answers
to the “How” question may explain much of the variability in children’s readiness to
learn, through the effects on children’s need systems, motivation, and self-regulation.
The following is an example of an educational approach exemplifying the use of the
basic ideas discussed here.
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132 PNINA S. KLEIN

The Developmental Mediation Approach

The MISC is presented here as a model educational approach, which is based on
attempts to analyze or read interactions and use them to enhance early education. The
acronym MISC stands for both the process and the objective of this approach. The ob-
jective of this approach is More involved, interested, insightful (Intelligent) and Sen-
sitive Children (MISC). Intelligence is referred to as the ability and need to learn
readily and easily from one’s experiences, also referred to as flexibility of mind. Sen-
sitivity is defined as the ability to understand one’s self and others’ emotions ex-
pressed in adult-child interactions and to respond in a way that promotes the quality
of the interaction, including positive affect, synchrony between partners, and optimal
duration of the interaction. The process through which this objective is achieved is
represented by the same acronym MISC—a Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing
Caregivers, including parents and teachers.
The MISC approach is based integrating three major frameworks, two of which,
the eco-cultural and the developmental approach, are frequently mentioned in current
early intervention approaches. The integration of the first two components with the
third, the mediational one, is unique and is proposed as a necessary combination for
effective early childhood education in general and for early intervention in particular.
The three components of the MISC are as follows:
1. The eco-cultural approach relates to the necessity to raise the awareness of the
adults interacting with young children of their own deep objectives of child-
rearing, their long-term educational goals, their perception of the ideal child,
ideal parent, etc., vis-à-vis their actions toward achieving immediate goals,
such as teaching specific content matter. This is particularly important when
teachers and children come from different cultural backgrounds.
2. Growth and development are viewed as a dynamic process in which both child
and adult are partners affecting each other and the environment. Based on this
framework, programs for infants and young children must take into consider-
ation young children’s basic emotional needs for stable affectionate relations
with one adult as the basis for any future learning.
3. A developmental mediation approach combines basic elements from the de-
velopmental approach and the mediational approach. Based on the theory of
cognitive modifiability (Feurstein, 1979, 1980) and Vygotzky (1978), several
basic characteristics of adults’ behavior that are necessary to create experi-
ences of mediated learning for young children were empirically defined and
identified. Empirical evidence (Klein & Alony, 1993; Klein, 1996; Tzuriel,
1999) suggests that these experiences may consequently promote the chances
for cognitive and emotional development of young children by affecting their
needs systems. These mediational processes (see Table 1) include the follow-
ing behaviors by adult caregivers:
• Focusing—attempts to get a child’s attention.
• Affecting—attempts to raise the child’s awareness of the affect or signifi-
cance associated with objects, people, and actions in the environment, i.e.,
expressing the meaning and significance of things, people, or processes.
• Encouraging—mediates feelings of competence to the child.
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The Literacy of Interaction 133

• Expanding—transcends verbally or nonverbally the concrete immedi-
ate context of the interaction (also known in the educational literature as
“distancing”).
• Regulating behavior—attempts to mediate planning behaviors, including
considerations that precede actions, as well as actually demonstrating to a
child how to do things.

Typical Features of the Developmental Mediation Approach

The objective of the developmental mediation approach is to promote a sound, fa-
cilitative adult-child relationship with a special focus on adults’ teaching behavior—
enhancing and improving the literacy of interaction representing a child’s mental diet.
One approach using the MISC is based on videotaping and providing video feedback of
adult-child interactions. Adults view themselves interacting with their children and are
helped to analyze their interactions in relation to their own views and perceptions of
their child, themselves, their educational objectives, and the child’s actual sensory pro-
file and developmental status (Klein, 1996). A profile of mediation represents the fre-
quencies and sequences of mediational behaviors in the observed interaction. Initially,
the most frequent or the best mediational behaviors are pointed out and discussed, fol-
lowed by the others. In addition, the synchrony of the interaction, and the adult’s sensi-
tivity and responsiveness to the child’s initiatives are highlighted. This process helps
parents, caregivers, and teachers sharpen their awareness regarding what they bring to
the interaction vis-à-vis what their child contributes to it, and how those contributions
interplay and modify the interaction. Following this process, parents, teachers, and care-
givers frequently become more motivated and interested in the interactions with their
children as they gain competence in their own behavior as caregivers. The latter is most
important for sustaining long-term effects of the mediational approach.

Poor Mediation and Difficulties in Learning?

In line with Feuerstein’s theory of cognitive modifiability (Feuerstein, 1980),
much of the variability in children’s capacity to benefit from new experiences
(namely, flexibility of mind) is linked to the type of mediational interactions they have
had with the adults who cared for them. These differences are apparent in the way
these children approach new experiences, in the way they integrate them with other
experiences, and in the way they express themselves. Many children lack the enthusi-
asm or need to explore their environment, to search for meaning, to think of connec-
tions between things, to seek newness. They are satisfied with a blurred, undifferenti-
ated picture of their environment. Their eyes and ears (although functioning normally)
are not tuned to detect fine differences between various things they perceive. They do
not have the need to form a link between cause and effect, between past, present, and
future experiences, and are less inclined to seek an adult’s assistance in order to solve
problems or obtain more interesting information or objects. It is clear that children
with undifferentiated, blurred perceptions, lack of enthusiasm, and absence of the
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134 PNINA S. KLEIN

drive to explore and opportunities to do so, experience things in an isolated, frag-

mented manner, which limits their capacity to benefit from future experiences. Chil-
dren who have these limitations may be considered as lacking flexibility of mind or as
having difficulties in benefiting from new experiences. Most of these behaviors have
been identified by Feuerstein (1979, 1980) as reflecting deficient cognitive processes
related to poor mediational experiences.

Differences between the MISC and Other Early Interventions

The MISC was designed to overcome some of the difficulties that were inherent in
ongoing early intervention projects in various countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and
in the United States (Klein, 1996). Although different programs were implemented in
different countries, the following problems were reported repeatedly in many of them:
1. Whereas many early education programs aim to promote the development of
cognitive skills or abilities, the prime objective of the mediational approach is
to affect the children’s need system, to create new, more differentiated needs
that could promote their future appetite and capacity for learning (see Table 1).
It is a misleading notion to assume that merely bringing people into contact
with new experiences helps them to develop a differentiated taste or need for
them. We can take children to the theater, to the library, or to a concert, but
does it affect their need to seek cultural experiences of this kind in the future?
An infant or young child experiencing pleasant feelings in the presence of an
adult wants to be with him or her even after basic needs have been fulfilled.
Hearing the adult, pointing to things, explaining them, associating, comparing,
contrasting, becomes desirable as well, and thus develops the need for more
such “educational” interactions. Fredrickson (2001) has suggested that posi-
tive feelings have an effect on cognitive dispositions and processes, and that as
the links between them persist, these processes become a permanent part of
one’s repertoire of behavior. It is through pleasurable human interaction and
mediation that an infant or young child learns to need and seek clear informa-
tion, beyond what is directly perceived by his or her senses and all the other
needs listed earlier, which are associated with better reception, organization,
and application of learned experiences.
2. Parents from various ethnic backgrounds, especially poor parents, were led by
education professionals to believe that there is one ideal model, a “better way”
of raising and educating young children, better than the traditional way they
brought with them from their old homes. The transition from the old to the
new frequently led to a feeling of alienation. Parents felt that what they had to
transmit to their children would not sufficiently promote later development.
They felt that they could only contribute the little they had been taught by their
child’s kindergarten teacher, nurse, or visiting specialist in the ongoing pro-
grams. This misperception limited all forms of cultural transmission and min-
imized the chance to capitalize on the best learning opportunities for the chil-
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The Literacy of Interaction 135

dren. The application of structured, content-oriented programs using specific
materials tended to create a dependency on these materials (e.g., toys, book-
lets, etc.) and limited transfer to other situations or other children within the
family, daycare, or educational setting.
3. There are differences between stimulating and mediating children. Stimula-
tion is a concept that most people, including professionals, parents, and care-
givers seem to view as a positive educational process. Yet, as is clarified here,
it may be a relatively useless or even a developmentally harmful process, far
from the original intent of those who are encouraging its use. In a modern
competitive society, parents are pressured to provide their children with every-
thing possible to insure that they are not left developmentally behind other
children. Many parents or caregivers are misled to believe that stimulating
young children, (i.e., merely catching their attention or focusing it on frag-
mented stimuli, without using this attention to convey meaning or relate expe-
riences), promotes their development. Such experiences may be perceived by
children as a bombardment of their senses and as inappropriate for them and
their specific needs at a particular moment. Such experiences may minimize
the child’s chances of developing the appetite and dispositions for learning.
As the MISC is focused on the quality of the adult-child interaction, and not on the
content of the material used in this interaction, it is not a program in the traditional
sense. It is more a method for sensitizing mothers (and other caregivers) to the posi-
tive aspects of their existing interaction and childrearing practices. As such, it can
never be in conflict with the mothers’ own traditional way of childrearing and stands
a better chance of sustaining long-term effects on parental behaviors.
Note: The research presented here was supported in part by WHO, UNICEF,
UNESCO, NORAD, and Red Barnna, supporting the implementation of the MISC in
Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Norway, Sweden, the Unites States, and Israel. Prepa-
ration of this manuscript was supported by the Machado Chair for Research on Cog-
nitive Modifiability, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

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