What it is all about: topic choices in young children's play

Abstract

Play gives young children opportunities to develop language and relationships. Friendships and the topics children choose for play can influence the nature of that play, but little is known about how friendship and topic choice impinge on topic maintenance. Topic maintenance is an important conversational skill, without which children can struggle to build relationships and access the type of extended talk which facilitates their language and concept development. In this study, we use a systemic-functional theory of language as a framework for investigating topic choice and topic maintenance in children's play. We recorded 50 pairs of five-to-six-year-old children as they played with unstructured materials (such as pebbles, sets of bottle tops and wood off-cuts) for 30 minutes in two different friendship conditions (high-level friendship (HLF) versus low-level friendship (LLF)). The range of topics across all the dyads showed considerable diversity. However, on average each pair chose only five topics of conversation and most pairs were able to maintain talk about at least one topic over several turns. Most importantly, high-level friends engaged with a chosen topic significantly more than low-level friends. Our results suggest that friendship supports children's engagement in talk and play.