First published as: Danby, Susan J (2002) The communicative competence of young children. Australian Journal of Early Childhood 27(3):pp. 25-30. The communicative competence of young children

This paper explores the verbal and non-verbal interaction of children in a preschool classroom. It analyses an episode in the block area to show the competent ways that some young boys use communication strategies to build their social worlds. Such understandings invite early childhood educators to reconsider young children’s communicative competence and the ways they accomplish their social order. Understandings of language interactions In early childhood education, children’s language typically has been studied from a developmental perspective. This approach has focused on a child’s development of language or sometimes, on the child’s lack of language. Recently, other perspectives have emerged that understand children’s language differently. One such perspective is sociology of childhood, which recognises the complex language interactions in which young children engage with each other and with adults (James, Jenks, & Prout, 1998; Mayall, 1999; Waksler, 1991). In recognising the competence of young children, this perspective provides new ways of understanding the talk and interactions of young children. Many understandings of language interactions are based on Piaget’s (1959) theory of cognitive and language development and Vygotsky’s (1986) socio-cultural theory. These perspectives describe children as developing language-users and therefore not yet fully competent in understanding and using language as effectively as older children or adults might. Educators, then, provide opportunities for children to develop and use language across a range of contexts, with particular emphasis given to the adults ’ role in scaffolding opportunities for language-rich environments. In recent years, the view of children developing competence has been critiqued b