Meaning making and mulit-modality
Meaning-making
A 'meaning making' or semiotic perspective underpins young children's symbolic play. Graphical symbol use develops from children pretending that one object stands for something else: for example, 2 year-old Liam balanced a teaspoon across the top of his mug, referring to it as a 'bridge'. In a similar way, when young child holds a woodblock or a banana to her ear and pretends it is a phone, she understands that at that moment, these objects mean something else. In this, giving alternative uses and meanings allows them also to come to understand that the marks and graphical signs they make can represent something in a drawing, a letter or numeral. These are multimodal meanings (scroll down CMG Glossary page).
Nathan's astronaut Tucking coloured paper in an envelope, Nathan explained it was an astronaut. Saying, "Blast off!" he lifted it above his head making a'whooshing' sound and announcing, "It's flying to the moon." Then, lifting the envelope's flap, he explained that the astronaut could get out of his space-suit.
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Jordan's 'doggie' 3-year-old Jordan made scribble-marks with a green pen, then making several cuts across it, remarked "doggie". It appeared that he intended his cut-out to signify its head and body, and the tiny piece its tail. This example includes sufficient visual information for Jordan to communicate his intention, whilst the lack of detail (face, ears and legs) may be implied.
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Alfie and Milo make paper calculators Alfie watched Milo use pages from a notebook to make ‘calculators’ and decided to join in. Having drawn shapes on his page, Alfie ripped off the page, and then made more symbols, saying ‘6,7, 8, 9, I’ve made a number 10’, followed by a third sheet, announcing ‘9, 10,11, 12’: in twenty minutes Alfie made a total of seven paper ‘calculators’. This play began several weeks earlier when Milo was playing with a real calculator: he seemed to be using it as a digital game, pressing the 'buttons' and commenting excitedly “Fighting games! Video games!” It was Milo who first decided to use a small notebook to make ‘paper calculators’, explaining as he tore off a sheet, “This is a different calculator with computer games on”. | ![]() |
![]() | Carl's parking tickets
Carl (4 years,5 months) was building a ‘car park’ with small wooden bricks. After parking a number of vehicles, he decided to give them parking tickets. Reaching out for some paper, a pen and scissors that were in a tray nearby, he made these parking tickets, reading them as “40p, 40p, 40p, 50p, 70p, 80p, 90p”. He told his teacher “You have to have a ticket or you get done!” Carl then went on to make a ‘Closed’ sign for the car park and a £50.00 sign to go on a car that was for sale. Carl’s dad was a lorry driver and Carl understood a great deal about lorries and cars. |