"Remember the Magic Show?" Educators and Young Children Reminiscing and Talking About the Future

• In Event: Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Research in Early Education and Child Development

Abstract

To date, research on children’s reminiscing and future talk conversations has primarily considered the role of parents as ‘socializing agents’. We extend upon this work by considering the role of educators. Twenty-one educators from metropolitan long daycare centres in Sydney, Australia were paired with up to six pre-school children aged 27–36 months (n=44) or 48-60 months (n=48). Over two sessions, each educator-child dyad discussed four past events and four future events. Conversations were coded for elaborative style (high-elaborative or low-elaborative) and content (mental state language, temporal terms and point of temporal reference). Analyses investigating how educator utterances predict child contributions are currently underway. Findings and implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Rebecca Andrews, Macquarie University

• Shirley Wyver, Macquarie University

• Penny Van Bergen, Macquarie University