ABSTRACT
Based on a socio-interactionist approach, this paper aimed to explore the meaning-making process of family in institutionally sheltered children’s play. Twenty-four children between 3 and 7 years old participated in the study. Using video recordings, groups of four or five children were invited to “play family” in a setting organized with accessible objects, performing characters considered as part of a family. Six episodes of play were analyzed. Perceptive/interpretative fragments of the children’s play show that they consider different family configurations, express vertical and horizontal relations between family members, reaffirm those relations’ components such as obedience, authority and caregiving and undergo affective exchanges. This evidence does not seem to be related to the peculiar situation of family distance and institutional sheltering.
Keywords:
children; play; meaning-making process; family; institutional sheltering.