Abstract
This article focuses on the interaction among young toddlers during their second year of life in a Swedish preschool, with the view of toddlers as social actors. The overall aim is to explore interaction, communication, and the creation of friendship between young children during self-initiated play activities. Play is looked upon as a rich arena for observing toddler interaction. The theoretical framework for the study is phenomenology, the view of the child as a social person and a child-oriented perspective. This article will also address the important concepts of methodology and research ethics, in relation to an ethnographic early childhood study, intended to investigate toddler’s life worlds. A close analysis of their worlds may reveal what was not visible before – like a kaleidoscope. Six one-year-old girls and boys in a setting, in a total of 15 children, were the focus of this study’s observations for nine months. Participatory methods, photos, field notes and video-recordings, were used for the data collection. The findings of the ethnographic study recognise theoretically the competence of the toddler as a social actor, the child as an active participant, and the strategic nonverbal and verbal actions of children to initiate friendship. Mutual awareness, joint attention, shared smiles, coordinated movements, as well as other types of synchronized actions are understood as parts of nonverbal elements in emerging friendship. The competencies of attunement, taking others’ perspectives and turn-taking were found in play among the young toddlers.
Highlights
Este artículo se centra en la interacción entre los niños pequeños durante su segundo año de vida en un preescolar sueco, desde la perspectiva de los niños pequeños como actores sociales
The analysis of the observations resulted in three phenomena showing toddler competencies in play among the young toddlers: turn-taking, taking another child’s perspectives, and emerging friendship
The research questions will be used to structure this discussion. How do these toddlers express themselves when playing with peers and how do they interact and communicate with each other? The findings show the toddler as a social actor; the child as an active participant, the strategic nonverbal and verbal actions of children to initiate friendship and the value of theory that investigates life-worlds in the everyday context
Summary
Este artículo se centra en la interacción entre los niños pequeños durante su segundo año de vida en un preescolar sueco, desde la perspectiva de los niños pequeños como actores sociales. Este artículo también abordará las categorías centrales de metodología y ética de la investigación, con relación al estudio etnográfico de la primera infancia, destinado a investigar los mundos de la vida de los niños pequeños. Los hallazgos del estudio etnográfico reconocen teóricamente la competencia del niño pequeño como actor social, el niño como participante activo, y las acciones estratégicas no verbales y verbales de los niños para iniciar la amistad. Este artigo enfoca a interação entre crianças pequenas durante o segundo ano de vida em uma pré-escola sueca, com a visão das crianças como atores sociais. Assumir a perspectiva dos outros e dar turnos foram encontradas em brincadeiras entre as crianças pequenas
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