This article discusses the interactions between the social mother and the child care situation in institutions called home model shelters, considering the importance of appropriate mediation for better child development. Four social mothers responsible for children under six years old participated in the study. Observations of the institutional routine, semi-structured interviews with social mothers and video-recordings of moments of interaction during routine activities such as bathing and feeding were made. Twenty ten minute duration films were done, five to each social mother. All recordings were transcribed and analyzed according to the mediation criteria - focusing, affecting, expanding, rewarding and mediated regulation of behavior - proposed by the mediated learning approach. The mediation criteria most used by mothers was the mediated regulation of behavior, and the least used was expanding. This study discusses the need of a continuous program to form social mothers with emphasis on the mediational behaviors.
Shelter; Social mother; Mother child relations; Child development
