This paper will consider play-based methods utilised to explore young children's experiences of family life as means for documenting children's voices. Family is a universal concept and experience for children across national borders. Much of the research around family conducted with children focuses on family composition and membership (e.g. Castren and Widmer 2015, Mason and Tipper 2008), but less is known about family-as-activity (Clark and Kehily 2013) and as a verb (Morgan 2011) where the practices of and within the family provide meaning and insight into how families relate and not just who they are related to. This paper explores such practices from the standpoint of young children, aged 3 to 4 years old, focusing on what families do on a day-to-day basis, on the everyday and the mundane. The research took place in three early childhood settings in the North of England, UK. Through sensory play-based activities with loose-parts resources children engaged in recreating what they do with their families, activating conversations about family practice. Children’s sense of self within the family and their positioning was documented by developing 'I-poems' using the Listening Guide (Gilligan 2015).

The research reported in this paper builds on existing early childhood practice and resources familiar to young children to offer novel ways of listening, documenting views and experiences. The research aim was to develop, test and disseminate innovative methods for listening to young children. This was achieved by enabling young children to articulate their understandings and experiences of family practice through play-based research methods and working in partnership with the participating early childhood settings to embed methods for listening to young children into practice alongside focus on (re)building partnerships with families following the Covid-19 pandemic. Children were supported to express views for themselves through play-based methods and a process of analysis foregrounding their voices.

This research is informed by a qualitative participatory approach (Lomax 2020). The project utilised play with sensory and open-ended loose-parts resources to enable children to discuss (verbally and non-verbally) their understanding of family. Data was generated using play-based activities aiming to facilitate understanding of the experiences of family practice from a child’s perspective. Everyday activities that children partake in as part of/with their family were recreated as open-ended opportunities that engaged the children’s senses and activated conversations about what their families do. The conversations were audio-recorded and observation notes were made of children’s engagement. Children’s sense of self within the family and their positioning are illustrated through the ‘I-poems’ developed with verbal and non-verbal observational data during the play sessions.

Emphasising the experiences and voices of children (in the widest sense possible) contributes to better understanding of how they position themselves within their families and family practice. The generated knowledge about children’s understandings of family practice will strengthen partnership working within settings by adding children’s perspectives, at a time when partnerships have been affected by limited contact during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through exploring children’s understandings of family practice, stronger home-setting partnerships could be fostered, benefiting children, families, and early childhood practitioners. The methods discussed offer an effective way for practitioners to incorporate more active listening using approaches, objects and activities that are readily available in settings, thus rendering the practice cost-effective at a time of financial strain.

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