Touch in children’s everyday peer relations in preschools

Abstract

The article explores how touch appears in children’s everyday peer relations in preschools. The narrative research material consists of video recordings produced in four Finnish preschools. Touch in children’s relations appeared as an invitation, an attempt to control and a conventional pattern. The findings show that narrative environments of the preschools produce, enable and limit touch in the children’s everyday peer relations. In terms of touch, children follow the practices created by educators and the wider society. However, the children also challenge these practices and the set limits, appearing as active agents in producing embodied acts of touch in preschools.