”Social status and communicative competence in preschool years. An observation-based approach”.

The overall purpose of this dissertation is to examine social status and communicative competences among children at daycare centres on the basis of observations.

Overall the study shows that children characterised as social are distinguished by having a clear, understandable and friendly way of acting. Children’s social role is more influenced by their ability to talk to each other and to have dialogue with each other, than by more formal language skills such as vocabulary and grammatical skills. Moreover, the author concludes that children become more interested in each other as they get older. For example, the study shows that children under the age of two are rarely social, but that children who have turned three more often interact with each other and focus more on each other. The results indicate that when children are part of a group, only the very active children are able to attract positive attention.

Data was collected from two departments of a daycare centre for children of students, and a total of 64 children took part in the study; 40 girls an 24 boys. Data was collected on video, and the collection took place at the daycare centre at a time with a high degree of child-to-child-interaction and a low degree of structured activities. Recordings were made from 18 locations. Three five-minute sequences were recorded from each location, and the sequences were shot from two angles at all locations and in all situations. A total of 20 hours were recorded and at least 20 minutes with each child.

Nærland, T. (2011). ”Social status and communicative competence in preschool years. An observation-based approach”. Oslo: Institutt for Spesialpedagogikk, Universitetet i Oslo.