L'apport spécifique du père au développement cognitif du jeune enfant

Abstract

This paper focuses on similarities and differences between paternal and maternal behaviors in three kinds of early settings which are known for their cognitive outcomes : play with objects, scaffolding interventions and interactions around language. Several researches are reviewed concerning their rather implicit positions towards paternal and maternal contributions for child's early cognitive development. They can either consider that the latter are less important than the former (Clarke-Stewart, 1978 ; Power and Parke, 1982, 1983), or postulate that paternal and maternal accounts are quite similar in their contributions (Power, 1985 ; Pratt et al., 1988). They can also show that even if there is an important similarity between fathers' and mothers' contributions, there is a need to consider their complementarity (Lamb, 1981 ; Labrell, 1995 ; Lecamus, 1995 ; LeChanu and Marcos, 1994 ; Perlmann and Gleason, 1993). As the structure of the traditional family tends currently to undergo through dramatic transformations in our occidental societies (single-parent, blended or binuclear, or extended family households), the paper concludes with the necessity to assess the weight of parental behaviors on early cognition in children, in order to prevent possible deficits.