Att tillägna sig skriftspråkliga verktyg genom att leka affär

The study investigates how written-language tools are used and communicated in play between children, and between children and pre-school teachers, and how this play can support children’s understanding of symbols. The results show 1) the written-language tools that are introduced and actualised in the play and 2) how these are appropriated and given significance regarding the play’s development.  

Playing shop shows how children are engaged in and take the initiative to incorporate writing and written-language tools into the game. The analyses show that the children drive the game forward by asking questions that the kindergarten teacher responds to, while at the same time being part of the game. Through the introduction of written-language tools in the game, and through the children being able to get answers to their questions around them, the children get a model and structure for how such language tools can be used. The game of playing shop with the kindergarten teacher therefore offers the children the opportunity to play with and appropriate aspects of the written-language structure. 

The study is part of a larger research project in which kindergarten teachers and researchers work together to develop play-based teaching for kindergarten practice, and where the kindergarten teacher’s response to play is key. This case study is based on empirical data from a Swedish kindergarten where a kindergarten teacher and a group of children have been playing a game of shop for a long period of time. The empirical data material consists of video films that have been recorded over several months, and then transcribed and analysed. 

Magnusson, M. & Samuelsson, I. P. (2019). “Att tillägna sig skriftspråkliga verktyg genom att leka affär”. Forskning om undervisning och lärande, 7(1):23-43.