Children’s use of objects in an early years playground

Abstract

Early childhood research has investigated children’s use of objects largely focusing on cognitive and motor development. Yet members of a particular culture, such as young children’s peer groups, use objects that have cultural relevance as conversational items, as a means to interacting with other members of the group. This article illustrates the role of objects in children’s everyday lives by demonstrating how children orient to objects as a way of approaching an existing group. The findings are taken from a study using conversation analysis (CA) to explore playground interactions between four-year-old children in a Welsh primary school. The analysis reveals that children systematically us..