« La programmation du goût chez l’enfant » : les habitudes alimentaires façonnent-elles les préférences de demain ?

Abstract

L’étude conduite auprès de 96 enfants de trois, quatre, cinq et sept ans se propose d’analyser les jeux de faire semblant, en termes de détournements d’usages d’objets et de co-construction de conventions entre enfants. Trop souvent, les usages sont observés chez l’enfant seul ou indépendamment des dynamiques interactives au sein desquels ils sont produits. Cette recherche vise à combler ce manque. La tâche, proposée à des dyades d’enfants de même âge est un jeu symbolique (préparer un repas) avec des objets incongrus au regard de la thématique. Les résultats révèlent un développement des usages détournés allant d’usages non verbalisés (communs à tous les âges) à des détournements uniquement verbalisés sans usages à sept ans surtout. Les processus de co-construction de conventions se complexifient avec l’âge. Ainsi, cette étude montre comment les usages d’objets sont le fruit de consensus entre enfants à la lumière des approches socioculturelles du développement cognitif.This research focused on the development of symbolic object use in peer interactions among 3-, 4-, 5- and 7-year-old children. Our aim was twofold: to explore the development of symbolic object use and to investigate the co-construction of social conventions between children. Although early childhood development literature has extensively explored this issue, little attention has been devoted to the development of symbolic object use. However, recent studies have shown that even 3-year-old children have difficulties in understanding symbolic object use, when objects are given other functions than their conventional ones (e.g., when a cup is used as a hat). Regarding our second aim, several studies exploring the development of cooperation and shared meanings have found that the understanding of collective intentionality develops during the second year of life. Despite recent advances in the study of symbolic comprehension, research on the development of symbolic production and the construction of shared meanings in preschool and school-age children is still scarce. To explore these questions, 48 dyads of young children were presented with a thematic pretend play task. The experimenter asked children to pretend they were preparing a meal for a crying baby. Ten different “incongruous” objects, such as a shampoo bottle and a paintbrush, were given for the pretend play. Results showed that the majority of dyads engaged in a meal scenario. Three-year-old children produced more symbolic uses of objects without any verbal explanations, whereas 7-year-old children developed more symbolic uses of objects with verbal explanations. In other words, the younger children constructed symbolic meanings mainly through action, while the older ones combined action with a verbal dimension to communicate new uses. Moreover, the 7-year-olds re-used more objects in the pretend play, by developing the symbolic uses in more elaborate ways or by creating new symbolic uses for the objects. The 3-year-olds re-used objects simply by imitating previous symbolic uses, and used a smaller range of meanings than the 7-year-olds. Results are discussed from a sociocultural perspective of cognitive development, which sheds new light on objects and their uses in developmental psychology.