Role voicing, gender, and age in preschool play discourse

Abstract

This study analyzed play discourse participation frameworks in groups of different gender compositions and different age compositions, focusing on the different ways that children “voice” a pretend play role. A single, 24‐child preschool classroom containing 3‐, 4‐, and 5‐year‐olds was the object of an extended observational study; 29 hours of naturalistic discourse were transcribed, coded, and statistically analyzed. There were significant differences in the role voicing used by older and younger play groups. There were also significant differences in the role voicing used by groups of different gender compositions. Results are discussed with respect to the literature on gender and children's language development.