Children, diapers and bodily care in preschool: Scaffolding young children’s self-regulation and cleanness practices

This project develops knowledge about how young children, over time together with caregivers, learn to independently take responsibility for their cleanness in the preschool, e.g. develop self-regulatory skills.

The use and handling of diapers is a central part of caregiving during infant and toddler years with significant impacts on child development, but it also raises ethical dilemmas related to children’s integrity.

Yet there is a lack of knowledge regarding how children are scaffolded from using diapers to toilets in Swedish preschools and in collaboration with the home.

Cultural habits, norms and values related to bodily cleanness practices form contexts of early childhood development and learning.

How social interaction patterns between the caregiver, child and peers change as the child gradually incorporates self-regulation skills requires a close examination of the child’s perspective.

Ethnographic fieldwork will be conducted, involving a sample of 36 focus children age 1 ½ - 4-years over a period of 2-years.

A transdisciplinary approach is applied with a focus on affective practices, emotion work, self-regulation and gender in order to explore how children’s perspectives and integrity are balanced in relation to adult scaffolding towards children’s self-regulated independence.

The findings will inform early childhood education and care at the intersection of home and preschool with the goal of providing a sustainable pedagogy for societies’ youngest citizens.