'I caught your eye, I catched your teeth' : distributed playfulness connecting children.

Abstract

This paper explores how playful activity mediates and connects children as “mind” becomes distributed across individuals (Rogoff, 1998; Salomon, 1993; Tomasello et al. 2005). “Mind” includes consciousness, cognition, emotion and imagination. Children’s playful communication is mediated and distributed via words, sounds, gestures, gaze, posture, rhythm, and movement using a variety of strategies including imitation and repetition. Socio-cultural historical activity theory informs both the methodological paradigm of the research and the framework for data analysis (Chaiklin, 2001; Cole, 1996; Engeström, 1999; Vygotsky, 1986, 1978; Wertsch, 1998). Findings suggest that understanding children’s mediated and distributed relationships with others is central to understanding children in early childhood settings. Distributed understandings of mind have pedagogical implications for how teachers view children in early childhood centre communities, and for curriculum and assessment practices.