Abstract

SERRA, Maria José de Mesquita  and  CORREA, Jane. Maternal expectation and children's literacy achievement. Rev. bras. crescimento desenvolv. hum. [online]. 2005, vol.15, n.1, pp. 32-45. ISSN 0104-1282.

This work examines the relationship between maternal expectation and the child's literacy achievement. A questionnaire consisting of seven texts produced in different moments of children's literacy experiences at school was presented to 45 mothers who should indicate how they desired and expected their children to be writing in the middle (July) and at the end (November) of the school year. On these two occasions, children's writing samples were collected. In July, children's performance was beyond their mothers' desire and expectation. In November, however, the number of children whose performance surpassed what their mothers expected and desired decreased. On the other hand, the percentage of children whose performance did not come up to their mothers' desire and expectation increased. In that case, the majority of children had mothers whose desire was beyond their expectation. The majority of children whose performance surprised their mothers were those whose mothers' desire and expectation coincided.

Keywords : maternal expectation; literacy; children's writing.

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