Browsing by Author "Pekuri, Emmi"

The purpose of this study was to research how the children in one early childhood education center exclude and include each other and what kind of tools the ECE-staff uses to support inclusion and prevent exclusion. The study also examines whether the children’s behavior matches the staff’s ways of describing exclusion and inclusion in the group. According to Helgekand and Lund (2016) exclusion is something children are most afraid of. Öhman (2010) points out that the excluding child has developed faulty communication patterns and manners for relations. Physically aggressive behavior is the most common and easiest to spot. Relational exclusion, like leaving someone outside the fellowship, is much more difficult to recognize (Öhman, 2010). The data collection consisted of 16 hours of observation of 19 five-year-old children and interviews with three different educators. The study was conducted in one Swedish speaking daycare center during December 2021 and January 2022. Qualitative content analysis was used for analyzing the data. According to the results, the most common way of excluding someone was ignoring another child non-verbally. The children also excluded each other verbally by saying to another that they are not allowed to play with them. The most common way of including someone was verbally asking someone to join them or non-verbally letting someone join in a play situation. Chosen and involuntary loneliness also occurred but the latter was slightly more common. The staff mentioned three kinds of ways of exclusion, verbal, non-verbal and unconscious exclusion. The unconscious exclusion refers to when the children do not notice if someone is excluded or alone. According to the staff, the ways of inclusion were verbal or unconscious inclusion. Tools for supporting the inclusion were playing stations, randomly drawn playmates, or using the program ‘SET in preschool’. The staff also mentioned the importance of spontaneous discussions with the children. Playing stations were often used, but the lack of resources led to very few spontaneous discussions or conflict resolutions.