Newly arrived children’s encounters with the cultural community of preschool.

The study explores how children in a new language environment use communication to participate in conversations in kindergarten. The research questions are: 1) What communicative tools are used by the newly arrived children? 2) How do they participate in peer interactions using these communicative tools?

The results indicate that children who have recently arrived in Sweden actively communicate with other children in kindergarten using different ways of speaking. Although they may not speak Swedish perfectly, they try their best and are understood by the other children. The other children in the kindergarten are supportive and try to understand and help the new children. The author of the study believes this shows how important it is that adults in kindergartens notice and support this type of interaction between children.

Two girls aged three and five who had recently arrived in Sweden were observed in the kindergarten over a period of five months interacting with peers. Both children had migrant backgrounds. When the data collection started, they had been in kindergarten for about four months. The data material consisted of 17 hours of video recordings and field notes.

Skaremyr, E. (2021). "Newly arrived children’s encounters with the cultural community of preschool". European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 29(3):397-409.