Purpose
We have limited knowledge about how caregivers interact with groups of toddlers in kindergarten. Practice conducted in toddler departments is often based on individual approaches, despite the fact that kindergarten is a group setting. This study has investigated how caregivers created shared attention with toddlers in 12 different groups during communal meals.
The purpose of the study is to contribute to knowledge development regarding the quality of caregivers’ interactions with children in toddler groups from a group-related perspective.
Result
The results showed that certain caregivers took the lead and engaged their groups in long episodes of shared attention. The children in these groups appeared to be engaged in interactions involving several children and with varying content. Other caregivers seemed disengaged and their groups were involved in fewer and shorter interactions, most of which did not meet the requirements for shared attention. In these groups, the interaction was mostly about rules.
Design
The data material is based on video recordings made in connection with a previous quantitative study on the quality of caregivers’ interactions with toddler groups. The researcher has selected six caregivers with a high score and six with a low score in terms of their interaction quality with the children. This article presents a qualitative investigation of this sample of twelve caregivers.
References
Os, E. (2019). “Engaging toddlers in interactions during meals: group-related joint attention”. Tidsskrift for nordisk barnehageforskning, (2019) 18:1-17.