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As Vygotsky (1978) explained, “What the child can do in cooperation today, he can do alone tomorrow.” Effective scaffolding works within the zone of proximal development, the gap between the child’s competence level—what he can accomplish independently—and what he can do with assistance of a skilled partner. With time, the child internalizes the scaffolding lesson and learns to accomplish the task on her own—and her zone of proximal development shifts, as shown in Figure 7.5. Adults tend to naturally provide children with instruction within the zone of proximal development (Rogoff, 2014). For example, adults reading a book to a child tend to point to items, label and describe characters’ emotional states, explain, ask questions, listen, and respond sensitively, helping the child understand challenging material that is just beyond what the child can understand on his or her own (Silva, Strasser, & Cain, 2014).

Parents’ guidance acts as a scaffold within the zone of proximal development to help children accomplish challenging tasks. Soon children become able to complete the task independently.

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The quality of scaffolding influences children’s development. In one study of preschool teachers and children, the degree to which the adult matched the child’s needs for help in playing predicted more autonomous play on the part of children over a 6-month period (Trawick-Smith & Dziurgot, 2011). Adults may act intentionally to encourage and support children’s learning (Zuckerman, 2007). For example, one study of parents and young children visiting a science museum found that when parents provided specific guidance in considering a conservation of volume problem, such as discussing the size of the containers, asking “how” and “why” questions, and talking about simple math, children were more likely to give correct responses to scientific reasoning problems, including those involving conservation (Vandermaas-Peeler, Massey, & Kendall, 2016).

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Figure 7.5 Zone of Proximal Development

Source: Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, https://lmrtriads.wikispaces.com/Zone+of+Proximal+Development licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Parents and preschool teachers can take advantage of the social nature of learning by assigning children tasks that they can accomplish with some assistance, providing just enough help so that children learn to complete the tasks independently. This helps to create learning environments that stimulate children to complete more challenging tasks on their own (Wass & Golding, 2014). Through guided play, teachers can develop play environments and settings with materials that encourage exploration and guide children with comments, encouraging them to explore, question, or extend their interests (Bodrova & Leong, 2018).