Adult assistance procedures were experimentally compared for their effects upon the preschool child's tendency to persist in self-selected manipulative tasks in a free-play setting. (JMB)

Twenty-eight second and third grade classrooms in Austin, Texas were observed for approximately thirty hours each, using an elaboration of the Brophy-Good Dyadic Interaction Observation System. These process data were then analyzed for differences according to grade, student sex, and student socioeconomic status (SES). Grade and sex differences…