‘The terrible twos’: Gaining control in the nursery?

Abstract

‘The terrible twos’ are often described as a time of ‘gaining control’, usually thought of as adults asserting control over children, who learn to control themselves. However, toddlerhood is as much about children learning to take control for themselves. This paper is an attempt to detail something of the social geography in the toddler room of a Scottish nursery, considering both styles of adult control and the ways in which toddlers attempt to appropriate and reconfigure space and time for themselves. That is, the ways in which space and time are negotiated in the course of day-to-day nursery life.

Keywords:

• Early childhood
• toddlers
• childcare
• control
• space

Acknowledgements

With much encouragement and advice from Chris Philo, this paper has emerged out of the cobble of ideas that was my undergraduate dissertation. I'd also like to thank David Hartley and two anonymous reviewers for their useful advice on earlier drafts of this paper.

Notes

1. Social competence is not a single attribute, but a group of competencies which allow individuals to integrate thinking, feeling and behaviour to achieve social tasks and outcomes. Social competence is regarded as underlain by a number of skills, including: appreciation of other points of view; ability to interpret emotional states and behaviour in others; considered, rather than impulsive, responses to social situations; and altering behaviour to accommodate others (The Scottish Office, 1998). Less prescriptive definitions of social competence may be more useful, such as simply successful social functioning with peers (Gettinger et al., 1992).

2. In the empirical data discussed later Aidan's name has been changed, as have the names of all other participants in this study.

3. This appears to endorse the sociability of toddlers, in that it implies that they possess some kind of social reflexivity. However, it turns out to be a case of children passively internalising adult discipline. Green details a number of parenting techniques for toddler taming based in behaviourist theories of classical and operant conditioning (see Corsaro, 1997; MacNaughton, 2003). These allow parents to manipulate their children and train them to behave in ‘acceptable’ ways. In particular, Green notes the importance of toilet training—an adult-led process of disciplining the child's body to conform to societal norms (Aitken, 2001).

4. Wonderland is a sensory experience room.

5. Field diary extracts have been indented and italicised in the text.

6. Staff names have been capitalised in field diary extracts to distinguish them from the children.

7. Truly ‘free’ play in the nursery is a myth. Children are not free to choose to do anything, but to choose from the available, carefully chosen, materials. They must use these materials in ways that are deemed ‘appropriate’ by the nursery staff. In effect, children are constrained by the disciplinary power of the curriculum (Leatzow et al., 1983; Canella, 1999).

8. Nappies were, of course, changed at other times if necessary.

9. Sticky kids is a music and movement activity for young children.

10. In Louise's case this was due to parental request, Max slept in his buggy because he was ‘disruptive’ on the sleep mats.

11. The term ‘style’ here is used in much the same way as psychologists refer to ‘cognitive styles’. Individuals employ unique ways in acquiring new information; they approach experiences in different ways according to their personal characteristics (Morgan, 1999, pp. 130–131).

12. Continually recording children's activities in this way is part of the hierarchical surveillance and normalising judgement of panoptic regimes (Foucault, 1991).

13. Nurseries are embedded in wider social life. As such, they are influenced both directly and indirectly by discourses acting at various scales (both spatial and temporal).

14. In the toddler room rules were generally implicit, coded into the routine and classifications of space. However, certain rules, such as the rules against running in the nursery or against hitting and biting, were made more explicit. Even then they were obscured behind concerns for children's safety. Children were told not to run because they might fall and hurt themselves and not to bite or hit because it hurts other children. If discipline is embodied in the classroom layout and the curriculum, it is possible for nurseries to function with a single general rule—masked as a concern for children's well-being—that no-one must hurt themselves or others (Leatzow et al., 1983).