Touch as a resource when initiating joint activities in children’s peer interactions

Abstract

This video-ethnographic study explores preschool children’s ways of engaging in joint activities using touch, i.e., various types of physical contact. Focusing on how children (2–5 years old) in preschools in Sweden manage peer group activities, the study examines the ways in which physical contact features in children’s activity proposals and other actions that are aimed at including participants in a joint activity. It explores some of the diverse ways in which children initiate peer group activities by using touch as one of many multimodal resources for forming and sustaining activity-relevant participation frameworks. The study shows how children employed touch acts to i) initiate a joint participation framework by securing peers’ attention and bodily orientation; ii) create and sustain a joint participation framework within a multi-activity by assembling and managing simultaneous engagements; and iii) engage and include a child into an already ongoing activity. The study aims to contribute to knowledge about children’s touch cultures, as well as embodiment of children’s social relational work in early childhood educational settings.