Reconceptualising early language development: matter, sensation and the more-than-human

This article critically interrogates the model of language that underpins early years policy and pedagogy. Our arguments emerge from an ethnographic study involving 2-year-olds attending a day care centre that had begun to hold a substantial proportion of its sessions outdoors. The resultant shift in pedagogy coincided with changes in the children's speaking and listening practices. We take these changes as a starting point for a reconceptualisation of early language and the conditions under which it develops. Drawing on posthuman and Deleuzian theory, we propose a relational- material model of early language, which situates language within a wider, multi-sensory and more-than-human milieu, in which children are immersed from their earliest days. We end by asking whether early language development might be better supported by payinglessattention to words, grammar and meaning, in favour of fostering participation in dynamic, multisensory, collective events.

Automated summary

This article critically examines the model of language in early years policy and pedagogy, proposing a relational-material model of early language development. It suggests that early language development may be better supported by focusing less on words, grammar, and meaning, and more on fostering participation in dynamic, multisensory, collective events.