Mapping young children’s conceptualisations of the images they encounter in their familiar environments

This article examines young children’s conceptualisation of the images they encounter within the familiar environments of the home and community settings, focusing on case study data from two, 4-year-old children. The data discussed are taken from a study involving a group of children aged 4–5 years. A participatory mapping approach was adopted, enabling children to be positioned as both message creators, through the production of their multimodal map texts, and message receivers as they sought to make meaning with the image-based texts they encountered within their environments. The use of a mapping activity supported identification of the children’s knowledge of different texts which may not so easily be put into words. The study revealed that, for children, the context and location of images are important, with the presence of images and artefacts enabling familiarity with a place. Furthermore, movement was identified as an intrinsic part of their multimodal engagements. Adopting a social semiotics theoretical framework, this study aims to explore the ways in which young children conceptualise images in their environment. This paper emphasises the need to take account of the embodied, spatial and multimodal nature of making practices, given the importance placed on these by young children themselves.