Factors that influence friendship choices in children under 3 in two schools: An approach towards child culture in formal settings in Barcelona

Abstract

The number of schools for children aged between 4 and 36 months has increased greatly in Spain over the last 20 years, and with that children's experiences have also changed. The aim of this research is to examine child culture and the factors influencing the relationships that children establish with peers in formal spaces with specific characteristics. According to the results, seniority and playing style influence friendship preferences, along with organisational factors such as the type and number of toys and age structure. This ethnographic research was conducted in the city of Barcelona.

Exploring the social connections in preschool settings between children labelled with special educational needs and their peers

“…The idiosyncratic routines they utilised, for example Karen dropping toys in the path of other children or Sam sitting amongst a group, also represented personal access rituals used to broker social exchanges (Corsaro 2005;Engdhal 2012). Additionally the lead children appeared to be motivated by the social potential of using larger toys or communal activities (Bertran 2014). As engagement with such shared play activities is connected to development of collaborative activity with peers (Svinth 2011), a clear theme emerging from this study was that all the lead children were beginning to explore these early collaborations albeit at different levels of intensity and intentionality.…”

“…nursery routine when the children engaged in free undirected play which involved open access to both indoor and outdoor activities. By taking this focus the research acknowledged that such play interactions act as platforms upon which children's collaborations and peer relationships become established(Svinth 2013;Engdhal 2012;Bertran 2014). The observation strategy was to describe any interaction involving the lead child and at least one peer whether or not an adult was present or subsequently joined the interaction.…”