The Contingent Relationships Between Maternal and Child Cognitive Demand Contributions in Shared Book Reading Among Low‐Income Preschool‐Age Dual Language Learners: A Sequential Analysis

This study employs sequential analysis to explore the contingent dynamics of cognitive demand in shared book reading across 152 low‐income immigrant Mexican American ( M age = 48.98 months) and Chinese American ( M age = 47.67 months) dyads. Utterances were coded for cognitive demand (yes/no, referential, behavioural, and inferential). While both groups matched the cognitive demand level of each other's speech, group‐specific deviations through the interactions of cultural background and maternal education revealed distinct scaffolding patterns. Mexican American children tended to undermatch inferential questions by reverting to yes/no answers, while Chinese American children showed matching responses across all question types, and their mothers employed mid‐level referential and behavioural questions for follow‐up. These patterns show that cultural and demographic variations impact the contingent structure of scaffolding, resulting in functionally different instances of overmatching and undermatching. These findings underscore the need for culturally sensitive interventions focused on the process of contingent language interactions.