Toddler Peer Research Articles

Moments of togetherness: humour and playful interactions in the toddler peer group

ABSTRACT Toddlers often use humour to engage their peers in acts of playful interactions as they build a sense of togetherness through a ‘mutual we’. In this paper, we discuss the findings of a study where the aim was to examine the embodied strategies toddlers use to engage their peers in interactions that are playful and full of humour. The study is an ethnomethodological study using conversation analysis (EMCA) to examine interactions that were video recorded over a nine-month period in an childhood education and care (ECEC) setting in Iceland. The findings explore how toddlers use humour connected to their available environmental resources to recruit other children into their play and explore social conventions and rules within their setting. These findings contribute to the growing body of early childhood research that positions this young age group as competent and imaginative in co-creating moments of togetherness, building the ‘mutual we’ within their peer group.

Forms of disrespect: Toddler's peer conflicts in early childhood education and care

This article discusses the ways in which toddlers carry out forms of disrespect during peer conflicts in Australian and Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. We investigate forms of disrespect in naturally occurring peer interactions by applying interaction analysis and Honneth’s theory of recognition. Drawing on Honneth , our study provides an empirical foundation for examining what leads to toddlers’ disrespectful acts. Our analysis shows that, especially outside adults’ view, disrespect in peer conflicts disrupts the fundamental preferences for peer agreement, alignment and affiliation. It threatens the norms of peaceable conduct, and so can be seen as a challenge to the social and moral order. A toddler's struggles for recognition arise from exclusion from play and the violation of the toddler's body. Implications arising from this research highlight the role of adults in identifying different forms of disrespect that occur in peer groups.

Initiating interactions in the toddler peer group

Two-year old children often express their understanding and intentions through embodied interactions as they co-produce social relationships. This article presents findings from an ethnomethodological study using conversation analysis to explore turn-taking in toddlers’ interactions in a preschool in Iceland. Here, we focus on how toddlers initiate interaction through touch and gaze. These findings demonstrate that toddlers are adept at reading social cues from their peers and are competent at turn-taking and repair in embodied interactions resulting in significant exchanges in the peer group. As such, this article contributes to a growing body of research that demonstrates toddler’s competencies in organizing their own social worlds through embodied strategies that co-construct peer relationships in competent ways.

유아의 가정환경과 또래유능성의 관계에서 언어발달의 역할

본 연구는 가정환경과 만 3세 유아의 언어발달, 그리고 또래유능성 간의 관계를 규명하기 위해 실시되었다. 즉, 유아의 가정환경이 바람직할 때 보다 나은 언어능력의 발달이 가능하며, 이는 어린이집 상황에서 보다 나은 긍정적 또래관계, 그리고 부정적 또래관계의 감소를 예측할 것으로 연구모형을 설정하고 이를 검증하였다. 연구대상은 한국아동패널에 참여하고 있는 유아 800명을 대상으로 하였으며, 이들의 4차년도 자료를 사용하였고, 구조방정식 모델링 기법이 적용되었다. 분석 결과, 가정환경과 유아의 어휘능력은 긍정적인 또래관계와 부정적인 또래관계 행동을 유의하게 예측하였다. 또한 유아 언어발달은 가정환경과 또래유능성을 유의하게 매개하는 것으로 밝혀져 유아의 사회적 관계 형성에 언어발달이 중요한 역할을 하고 있음을 시사한다. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the home environment of young children on their language and the quality of peer competence. The current study hypothesized that when the home environment of young children is desirable, the young children would be more likely to develop better language skills, which in turn, predict greater peer competence and lower levels of aggression and withdrawal in the interaction with peers at child care settings. The study used data of 1,802 families who have been participating in the Korean Child Panel Study since 2008. The results revealed that there was a significant relation from both positive home environment and better language skills to more positive play interaction and reduced play disruption and play disconnection. Home environment significantly predicted better expressive language development of young children and, in turn, higher scores on expressive vocabulary tests predicted greater peer competence and less negative play behaviors rated by child care providers. Statistical tests proved that the mediational effects of language skills between home environment and toddler's peer relationships were statistically significant. The study results emphasized the importance of language development in children's expanding social settings and the supporting role of rich and stimulus home environments in children's development.

Effects of Ownership Rights on Conflicts Between Toddler Peers

This study examined property conflicts in thirty‐two 20‐ and 30‐month‐old peer dyads during eighteen 40‐min play sessions. Ownership influenced conflicts. Both 20‐ and 30‐month‐old owners claimed ownership (“mine”) and instigated and won property conflicts more often than non‐owners. At 30 months, owners also resisted peers’ instigations more often than non‐owners. Mothers’ interventions supported non‐owners more often than owners, in part because owners initiated conflict more frequently. Children who received mothers’ support tended to win disputes. Finally, mothers’ support of owners and children’s adherence to ownership rights led to decreased conflict as relationships developed, supporting predictions based on theories concerning the social utility of ownership rights.

The Construction of ‘Toddler’ in Early Childhood Pedagogy

The theoretical construction in this article rests on one constitutive pillar of seeing the toddler within the view of Merleau-Pontyan philosophy, combined with a second pillar of empirical toddler peer studies, from both of which an emerging toddler ‘style’ of socializing is read. ‘Style’ in this analytical context should be viewed as a phenomenological and hermeneutical construct. To enable the construction of ‘toddler’ in early childhood pedagogy to stand, the necessary third pillar deals with the inquiry of a pedagogical notion proper to this context. Such a notion must accord with the view that the toddler of our time actively contributes to the construction of him-or herself, as well as of the persons, objects, surroundings and culture of the world in which he or she lives, and with which he or she interacts. To be at all noteworthy in the changeable plurality of post-or late modern times, this notion must be both transformative and transformable. A look at the Bildung tradition of pedagogy, whilst considering postmodern ‘hypertransformation’ as well as the ancient root of pedagogy, forwards a conclusion that changeability goes side by side with durability, as does uniqueness with universality.

Greetings and welcomes among toddler peers in a Norwegian barnehage

This article focuses upon greetings and welcomes among one and two year old peers who meet regularly thoughout a year in the context of a Norwegian barnehage (day care). The results show that about half of the toddler greetings may be paralleled to well-known forms of distant and close greeting across cultures, 21% were found to be essentially childlike and often involed prolonged greeting “ceremonies”, indicating that a specific culure of welcoming may emerge among toddler peers meeting over time. The social significance of greeting in general and especially of toddler peer greeting is discussed.

Toddler Peers: From Nonverbal Coordinated Action to Verbal Discourse

Twenty‐four toddlers (24 months of age) interacted with an adult play partner who experimentally created two different nonverbal interactive contexts surrounding her speech to the toddlers. One, a nonverbal imitation game, mimicked that hypothesized to facilitate toddlers’ discourse with one another. The second mimicked another frequent form of toddler peer interaction, parallel play. After establishing the nonverbal context, the adult verbally described her own or the child’s nonverbal action. Being engaged in nonverbal imitation games facilitated toddlers (1) responding verbally to the adult’s speech in a topically well‐connected way and (2) maintaining topically‐connected responses over successive turns. Using nonverbal imitative acts, toddlers appear to nonverbally negotiate a topic for their interactions that facilitates their skill in verbal discourse.

The playful quality of the toddling "style"

In this paper the playful qualities of the social "style" of toddler body-subjects are traced in reviewing actual toddler peer studies in French, Italian, and Norwegian day care. Subsequent to a short presentation of the phenomenologically related concept of the toddling "style," the notion of playful quality is discussed and elaborated in relation to a mood for playing, the Here and There movement and the quality of recurrence. A playful "glee concert" performed by a group of seven toddlers in a Norwegian barnehage (day care), is interpreted as the children's making music together, with no adult "conductor" present. Furthermore, the phenomenon of proto tutoring in toddler peer play, and certain mediating elements of such play, are discussed. Finally, the existential value of the toddling Being of I, Thou and We in the everyday context of day care is considered.

Tracing the Social Style of Toddler Peers

The main theme of the present article is an attempt to trace the typical social style of toddlers, as this style may be argued to emerge in studies focusing on interaction and play among 1- and 2-year-old peers in their everyday life of public daycare. 'Style' is regarded as a phenomenological construct, implying the effort of making explicit the typicality of a phenomenon. The actual phenomenon in question is the characteristic style running through toddlers' different ways of socialising with peers, as these appear in a reader's interpretation of the results of toddler peer research. Based on the social phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, performance of the actions that are considered to contribute to this commonality or style are presupposed to contain social intentions and certain meanings. The toddler style is traced under the headings: (i) play sequences and routines; (ii) construction of shared meaning; (iii) affiliative structures.

How Toddler Peers Generate Coordinated Action: A Cross-Cultural Exploration

A developmental pathway is proposed for toddlers' mastery of the skills involved in generating non-ritualized forms of cooperative coordinated action with peers and the studies of USA toddlers supporting this pathway reviewed. The proposed pathway posits (a) a central role for nonverbal imitative acts in enabling toddlers to generate together extended bouts of nonverbal coordinated action and (b) a central role for these bouts of imitative coordinated action in facilitating toddlers' development of verbal means of coordinating action. This pathway then guides an analysis of the development and functions of imitative acts among toddler peers from a quite different cultural context--the Seltaman people of Papua New Guinea. Twelve Seltaman toddlers were observed with peers at near-weekly intervals over a six-month period. Ready imitation of one another emerged among the Seltaman toddlers during the same developmental period as for USA toddlers and functioned similarly to generate extended bouts of coordinated action--reciprocal imitation games. The themes of the reciprocal imitation games, however, varied in line with the socialization practices and characteristic play settings of the two cultures. These findings provide further support for the proposition that these imitative acts form part of a distinctly human pathway of development related to the emergence of human language.

Early Peer Interaction: A Research Agenda

We propose and discuss several hypotheses concerning the unique developmental status of peer relations in the first three years of life. We then suggest how these developmental differences might translate into hypotheses regarding early individual differences. The integrating questions revolve around whether individual differences in toddler and early preschool peer relations mean the same thing to young children as they do to older children, and whether they carry the same weight and serve the same functions in toddler peer groups as in peer groups among older children. Specifically, we suggest three ways that peer relations in the first three years are fundamentally different from later childhood peer relations: 1) they are likely to be more directly linked to and determined by temperament and attachment relationships; 2) limits in self and other understanding in the early years we likely to constrain both individual interaction skills and the formation of relationships with peers; 3) because emotion regulation in very young children is different from childhood emotion regulation, its role in governing peer relations will likely be different as well. Together, these proposals lead to the conclusion that individual differences in toddler peer relations must carry different meaning than in later childhood. A developmental perspective on individual differences suggests both continuities and discontinuities between toddler peer relations and childhood peer relations, and we offer several predictions.

Maternal intervention in toddler peer conflict: The socialization of principles of justice.

The focus of this research was mothers' interventions in object conflicts between toddler peers. Maternal consistency in endorsing principles of ownership and possession was evaluated. Thirty-two 20- or 30-month-old children were observed playing with same-aged, same-sex peers for 18 40-min sessions. Mothers of both children were present and free to respond to their children but were asked not to organize or direct the children's play.

Maternal intervention in toddler peer conflict: The socialization of principles of justice.

Maternal intervention in toddler peer conflict: The socialization of principles of justice.

A Social Relations Analysis of Toddler Peer Relationships

A Social Relations Analysis of Toddler Peer Relationships

A Social Relations Analysis of Toddler Peer Relationships

We examined whether young children form different relationships with specific peers. Using the social relations model, effects of individuals as either actors or partners were distinguished from effects of relationships. Relationship effects are inferred when behavior within a dyad cannot be predicted from behavior that both partners give and receive in other social contexts. 32 20- or 30-month-old children were each paired with 2 partners (same age and gender) and observed for 18 40-min play sessions. The social relations analysis indicated that children differed consistently in their initiation of interaction (actor effects) and in the conflict contributions they elicited from their peers (partner effects). Relationship effects were found in games and contingent interaction, and were generally reciprocal. Relationship effects emerged gradually; in contrast, neither actor nor partner effects increased over time. Results were discussed in the context of definitions of relationships and peer relationships of young children.

Toddler peer interaction in mixed-age groups

Toddler preference for different age playmates was investigated. Thirty toddlers, aged 16 to 23 months, were observed in family day care homes. Each subject had access to both same-age and older peers. Results indicate that toddlers preferred 2-year-olds compared to same-age peers. Toddlers watched preschoolers more often than same-age peers. Toddlers also used more imitation and language in their play with 2-year-olds compared to other age peers. Features of the caregiving environment were also assessed. Higher levels of arousal and motion were associated with more elaborate peer interaction. These findings support the notion that partner age and the caregiving environment can influence toddler social interaction.

Same- and cross-sex friends: Implications for interaction and social skills

Sex cleavages in toddler peer groups were investigated in two studies. In the first study, playmate preferences and initiations and responses to friends were examined. Three types of initiations and their responses were examined during the free play of 46 toddlers in day care centers. A preference for same-sex playmates was strongest in the oldest girls. Boys tended to ignore or refuse girls' initiations when the initiations took the form of specific requests to play a game compared with a more general approach. Friendships tended to be made with members of the same sex. However, children having same- and opposite-sex friends were less likely to initiate and respond to friends on the basis of sex. Children with fewer same-sex preferences initiated more games. In the second study, cross-sex friendships in 329 early toddlers, late toddlers, and preschool children were examined. Some children in all age groups had cross-sex friends, but the number decreased with age. Children with cross-sex friends appeared more socially skilled than children without cross-sex friends.

Object Substitution: Its Nature and Function in Early Pretend Play

A theoretical reappraisal of the meaning of object substitution in the development of children’s representational abilities is suggested, and a functional distinction between five types of object substitution is proposed, with a focus on the relationship between social imitation by toddler peers and the production of object substitution. Sixty-one acts of object substitution exhibited by children aged from 18 to 32 months during pretend play with objects in an interactive setting with peers were identified. The emergence of object substitution acts in the process of pretend play activities and the function they serve in this process were analyzed.

Convergent Developments: Cognitive-Developmental Correlates of Growth in Infant/Toddler Peer Skills

BROWNELL, CELIA A. Convergent Developments: Cognitive-Developmental Correlates of Growth in Infant/Toddler Peer Skills. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 275-286. Much of the work in infant/ toddler peer relations has been descriptive and atheoretical. The intent of this paper is to provide some integration among several heretofore independently studied areas of early peer competence as well as to move beyond simple description by pointing to cognitive developmental correlates of some of these early changes in peer skills. A survey of age-related changes in interaction structure, interaction content, and self-other relations in interaction reveals developmental convergence with two types of advances across pretense play, language, object play, and such cognitive abilities as object search, spatial problem solving, and causal inferences. One advance is in the child's ability to integrate discrete behaviors and/or sources of information into a sequence, combination, or logical relation, such as combining words into sentences. A second advance is in the child's ability to separate mentally her own actions from actions and events in the world, i.e., decentration. For both peer skills and the parallel skills developing in other domains, there appear to be age-related constraints on the form and/or complexity of the relevant behaviors. The implications of these convergences for future research are discussed.