Drawing as Social Play: Shared Meaning‐Making in Young Children's Collective Drawing Activities

Abstract

The ability to construct shared meaning with peers is important for young children's social and linguistic development. Previous studies have mainly focused on shared meaning‐making within cooperative pretend play with little mention of other childhood activities that might promote intersubjectivity. This study investigated the group play that occurs within young children's open‐ended drawing activities and how this encourages the development of shared meaning. One preschool class of 4–5 year‐old children was observed over eight 1 hour free play sessions. During each session, the children were presented with a variety of drawing materials and large drawing surfaces. No restrictions were placed on the number of children that could participate, or the subject matter of the drawings. The findings support the notion that group drawing can be understood through theories of socio‐dramatic play. The children initiated and maintained shared meaning through the use of common knowledge, and applied various verbal and non‐verbal communication strategies to advance the joint theme. This study supports the integration of open‐ended drawing activities in early childhood environments.

Creative Collaboration in Young Children’s Playful Group Drawing

“…The episodes were first analyzed using Göncü’s (13, 14) theory that shared meaning is developed through a process of metacommunication (i.e., the process of reaching an agreement on the nature of the activity) and communication (i.e., the coordination of intentions throughout the activity), using various verbal and non‐verbal strategies. Using this approach, we found that the children used several verbal and non‐verbal strategies to create shared meaning within group drawing contexts (Kukkonen, & Chang‐Kredl, 26), as they would in social pretend play (Howe et al, 20). These strategies (see Table 1 for definitions and examples) were then analyzed for their role in the process of creative collaboration, which is the focus of this article.…”

“…In early childhood, the arts are closely linked to play, as both activities require the use of symbolic thinking, meaning-making, and imagination (Wood & Hall, 2011). As a form of play, open-ended drawing affords children the opportunity to draw on and manipulate a variety of experiential and cultural sources to inform their imagery (Kukkonen, & Chang-Kredl, 2018;Wilson & Wilson, 2009). For example, in a study on children's drawing and accompanying speech, Coates and Coates (2006) observed preschool children playing Peter Pan during their free play outdoors and then extending the narrative through their drawings of Captain Hook and pirates in class.…”

“…Building on our previous work (Kukkonen, & Chang-Kredl, 2018) which examined young children's shared meaning-making processes through collective drawing, this article explores creative collaboration as it occurred through these same shared meaning-making processes in group drawing activities.…”

“…For example, in a study on children’s drawing and accompanying speech, Coates and Coates (7) observed preschool children playing Peter Pan during their free play outdoors and then extending the narrative through their drawings of Captain Hook and pirates in class. Studies have further demonstrated that young children engage in similar shared meaning‐making with their peers through arts activities as they would in social pretend play (Kukkonen, & Chang‐Kredl, 26; Coates & Coates, 7; Papandreou, 30) and that drawing, in addition to gestures, offers young children a way to visually convey thoughts to others (Einarsdottir, Dockett, & Perry, 8; Kolbe, 24; Korzenik, 25). This study therefore conceptualizes group art‐making as a form of social play in early childhood where children can share meaning and engage in creative collaboration.…”

‘Tell me your story!’ – Making the ‘Other’ Visible through the Development of Collaborative Visual Narratives

“…In her research, Kouvou () introduces this form of drawing as a means of visual and verbal communication following significant parameters of the collaborative process: verbal dialogue, narrative involvement and graphic exchange. Moreover, according to Kukkonen & Chang‐Kredl (, 84), open‐ended activities of ‘collective drawing activities afford children the opportunity to use a strategy of communication that is not generally found in sociodramatic play: drawing images or marks that provide play partners with a concrete visual representation of ideas and meanings as they develop in real time’.…”