Skylta med kunskap: En studie av hur barn urskiljer grafiska symboler i hem och förskola.

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about children's understanding of graphic symbols (such as letters, numbers, traffic signs, maps and computer icons). More specifically the aim of the study is to examine how children develop skills in understanding symbols, and how this can be supported through learning activities in a Swedish daycare centre (förskola).

The study shows that it is extremely important which aspects of symbols the dialogue partner (early childhood educator/teacher/parent/researcher) chooses to focus on in connection with a learning activity, and how this choice is made. For example, the dialogue partner can focus on the meaning of the symbol or simply on the elements of the symbol (e.g. a cross or a drawing of a man/woman). Moreover, the variation of the symbol used in the situation is also important, as this has consequences for what the child perceives from a symbol and how it understands it. For example, a symbol showing a crossed over ice cream (eating ice creams not allowed) can be changed to show an ice cream without a cross or perhaps a person eating an ice cream who is crossed over.

The study also shows that a child's administration of colours and shapes as symbol carriers includes an understanding of how the symbols communicate different meanings. For instance, that an elk inside a triangle symbolises "warning - elk", or that a blue triangle around a train symbolises “caution - trains".

Furthermore, the study shows that a child's ability to understand the meaning of a symbol without being associated with anything specific is continuously developing. This means that the child's ability to separate the general (e.g. a cross which means "no/prohibited") from the specific (e.g. a car, a person, an ice cream) in the symbol (such as a crossed over person).

Overall the study shows that a certain variation pattern called "contrast" is useful for early childhood educators in developing children's understanding of symbols, whereas another variation pattern called "induction" is not. "Contrast" means drawing a cross on an overhead and laying it on top of a picture and asking the child what happens with the picture when the cross is there, and when the cross is not there (prohibited/allowed). "Induction", on the other hand, is a method by which the picture is varied (e.g. several different crossed over pictures).

Moreover, the study indicates that meta-communication is key for the researcher's access to the child's understanding as well as for the child's development when it comes to learning symbols. Meta-communication makes learning about symbols visible and provides the child with linguistic tools to communicate about the situation and attach the meaning of the symbol to more general meanings than the specific sign.

The data material consists of two empirical studies, the first of which consists of observations of two children aged 4-5 years and how they create and use symbols in their everyday life at home. In this connection, it is observed how the two children handle graphic symbols when producing signs which are put up in their homes. The first study builds on the two children's own initiative to create symbols. The other empirical study uses the findings from the first study as well as theoretical material to find the best way to support the children in developing understanding of symbols at the daycare centre. The empiricism was collected from a Swedish daycare centre in which two early childhood educators and 12 children took part. The analysis focusses on the children's learning process, and is based on variation theory in which the two empirical case studies are analysed by looking at patterns of variance and invariance.

Magnusson, M. (2013). Skylta med kunskap: En studie av hur barn urskiljer grafiska symboler i hem och förskola. Ph.d.-afhandling. Göteborgs universitet, Göteborg.