The research in this thesis attempts to understand what happens when children (3-6 years of age) interact with each other in the context of free play in two pre-school settings when adults are not involved. The aim of the study was to get a closer look at how children create relationships and how they protect and defend their interactional spaces. Data was gathered through ethnographically inspired methodology, using video observation to capture the everyday interactions of the children. Results were analyzed using a phenomenological approach to peer cultures. Previous research suggests that it is very important for children to maintain their interactions with peers and gaining access to play. We have studied how children shape and interrupt relationships, and what strategies they mainly use to exclude undesired participants from play activities. Our results indicate that it was a hard task for the children to gain access to playgroups in these two pre-school settings, and that the children often jointly constructed a number of strategies for excluding other children from their play. The results also showed a considerable difference between the pre-school settings, both regarding the conception of status, themes of play and the way the children chose to protect their interactional space. Our study has shown legible examples of how peer cultures are under influence of local circumstances at these two specific settings.

In this study we analyse children's play and what access rules children use when they enter an ongoing play. The study also shows, through observations, how children can exclude each other from being part of the play. We have analysed how educators work with and how they relate to children's play and exclusion, also what their previous experience in the subject is. The study has its theoretical basis in Honneths moral theory and the development of educational perspective that Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson describes. The study adopted a qualitative approach. Our analysis is based on observations where children are not allowed to enter the ongoing play due to different factors. The play is seen as a central and important part of the children's every day activity at preschool and contains several furtherance dimensions in their development. The educators approach and thoughts are presented and analysed with the interview that has been done. The study results show that children master many access strategies, and use them frequently. Children's exclusions are often related to the ongoing play and its content where children protect their interaction space in the fear that their play will be ruined. In our interview responses, it appears that educators have the tools to promote and work with children's relationship creation, but that it is complex and often contextual. It appears that the work on the friendship culture at preschool contains many challenges and that it is something that has to be constantly worked with.

I denna kvalitativa studie var syftet dels att undersöka om förskollärare upplever att barn med språkligsårbarhet blir uteslutna ur leken och dels att undersöka vilka tillträdesstrategier barn med språkligsårbarhet använder sig av för att få tillträde till leken. Jag genomförde intervjuer med två förskollärarepå en förskola.Resultatet visar att de inte upplever att språksårbara barn med svenska som modersmål blir uteslutna urden fria leken. De upplever däremot att barn med annat förstaspråk än svenska blir uteslutna i störreutsträckning. De upplever även att dessa barn inte heller söker sig till fri lek i samma utsträckning sombarnen med svenska som modersmål. Resultatet visar även att barn oavsett språklig förmåga användersig av liknande icke-verbala strategier när de söker tillträde till leken. Variationen beror på barnens olikapersonligheter och beroende på sin personlighet väljer man olika sätt att söka tillträde i leken. Barnenanvänder sig av kroppsspråket i form av blickar, kroppskontakt och även TAKK förekommer i vissasituationer när de söker tillträde till lek. Språkstarka barn använder sig av kroppsspråket när de sökertillträde samtidigt som de förlitar sig på sitt verbala språk. / This qualitative study examines preschool teachers’ experience concerning if children with languageimpairment suffer from exclusion from play with other children. The study also examines theirexperience about what kind of access rituals children with language impairment use to gain access inother children’s free play. Interviews were conducted with two preschool teachers.The result shows that according to preschool teachers’ experience, exclusion can depend on the child’snative language. They notice more exclusion among the children with other native language thanSwedish. They also experience that these children don’t search access to play in the same extent aschildren with Swedish as mother tongue. The result shows that children, no matter speech competence,use the same kind of non-verbal access rituals when they search access to play. The variation of ritualsdepends on the child’s personality, not on language competence. Children use their body language inthe shape of eye contact, body contact and also sign language is used in some situations. Children withdeveloped language use the body language when they want access but they also rely on their speechwhen they search for access.