Adult-initiated touch and its functions at a Swedish preschool: controlling, affectionate, assisting and educative haptic conduct

Abstract

The present study examines adult-child touch and its functions in a Swedish preschool (for 1 to 5-year-old children). The data are naturalistic observations and video-recorded data of everyday preschool activities. The study describes the frequently occurring functions of educators' haptic conduct (control, affectionate, affectionate-control, assisting and educative touch), discussing them in relation to the children's age, gender and type of the preschool activity. It reveals the complexity of touch, demonstrating that physical contact is used for a variety of purposes in the educators' daily work. The educators employed touch without force, and the children did not respond with explicit and forceful resistance (such as pushing back or otherwise protesting). Adult-initiated haptic behaviour served a continuum of social purposesfrom social-relational work, such as establishing and building affectively positive, caring, social relations, to practical and educative organisational efforts to manage the complex and busy preschool life. The distribution of adult-child touch categories brings attention to the bodily aspects of the early childhood educational setting and highlights some of the ways in which the requirements of the Swedish curriculum for Preschool and its focus on educare are actualised in the educators' embodied conduct.

Affectionate touch and care: embodied intimacy, compassion and control in early childhood education

“…While previous studies largely rely on interview materials, or introspective data, video recordings of daily practices enable a detailed examination of touch practices as lived experiences, and show how participantsadults and young childrenrespond to and participate in each others' touch. For instance, video-ethnographic studies on the naturally occurring social interactions and the use of touch in adult-child encounters (in Sweden, Japan, and U.S.) show that caregiversparents and educators in early childhood educationrecurrently and systematically used touch for various communicative and social relational purposes (Bergnehr and Cekaite 2018;Burdelski 2010;Goodwin 2017). One of the most frequent functions of adult-initiated touch in Swedish preschools was mild controlling touch used to lightly monitor, manage and prompt a child's embodied actions, i.e.…”

“…Adults' mildly controlling touches were clearly linked to the management and organizational aspects of preschool activities. Studies on touch practices in Swedish preschools show that caregivers recurrently used comforting touch to sooth crying children (Bergnehr and Cekaite 2018). Similarly, Lipponnen (2017), in the investigation of the emotional worlds of Finnish kindergartens, reports that educators used touch to show their help and compassion.…”

“…Similarly, Lipponnen (2017), in the investigation of the emotional worlds of Finnish kindergartens, reports that educators used touch to show their help and compassion. In Swedish preschools, and families, affectionate features of adult touch were also significant in encounters aimed at controlling and managing various aspects of children's conduct (Bergnehr and Cekaite 2018;Goodwin and Cekaite 2018). These studies reveal that the relational meanings of touch are achieved in a rich interactional context, and essentially, that touch both reflects and influences the character of social relations.…”

“…In early childhood education, care constitutes a crucial part of educators' responsibilities because it contributes to children's well-being that is a pre-condition for children's learning and development. Relational conceptualizations of care involve intimacy and closeness, as well as ethical acts of empathy and compassion, realized through verbal and physical means (Bergnehr and Cekaite 2018;Hundeide 2007;Keane 2016;Noddings 2013). In caring situations, physical contact is significant because it contributes to enduring forms of intimacy (Montagu 1986) and efficiently displays empathy and regulates recipient's emotions (Wyschogrod 1981).…”

“…Such critical views on touch argue that policies have to protect the child's integrity from adult physical control and force. It is also pointed out that 'no-touch' policies can prevent sexual and physical abuse and accusations of such abuse (Bergnehr and Cekaite 2018;Piper and Smith 2003). However, a handful of recent studies on touch practices in ECEC have highlighted the positive aspects of physical contact between educator and a child, demonstrating that educatorchild touch is used in, for instance, compassionate acts of helping, soothing and showing affection (Bergnehr and Cekaite 2018;Fleck and Chavajay 2009;Lipponnen 2017).…”