Challenging dominant views of early childhood language development and knowledge, this thought-provoking volume illuminates the importance of place, the body, and movement in opening space for young children’s improvisatory, creative, playful language practices.
Bringing together a rich collection of contemporary research and diverse perspectives, the book centers on the premise that ‘where’ talk happens—be it spoken, mimed, signed, or assisted through one or more communication tools—is not a neutral backdrop or controllable variable. Rather, it is deeply entangled in the emergence of language from bodies, in how these vocalizations make their way into the world, what they might feel like and set into motion, and how they are received, heard and listened to by other humans and by non-humans. Chapter authors introduce theories about language, body, and place, while also providing examples of what this work may look like in practice.
This book is key reading for those who work with young children and families, including teachers, pre-service teachers studying child development, speech and language therapists, support workers, and those in the arts, cultural and environmental sectors. It is also highly relevant to researchers, literacy education scholars, and anyone who endeavors to think more expansively and critically about language and literacy in early childhood contexts.
Edited by:
Khawla Badwan (Manchester Metropolitan University UK),
Ruth Churchill Dower (Manchester Metropolitan University,
UK),
Warda Farah,
Rosie Flewitt (Manchester Metropolitan University,
UK),
Abigail Hackett (Manchester Metropolitan University,
UK)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 680g
ISBN: 9781032677910
ISBN 10: 1032677910
Series: Expanding Literacies in Education
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 21 August 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Contents Book Series Editors’ Forward Foreword: Warda Farah SECTION I: Introduction 1 Introduction KHAWLA BADWAN, RUTH CHURCHILL DOWER, WARDA FARAH, ROSIE FLEWITT, RACHEL HOLMES, ABIGAIL HACKETT, CHRISTINA MACRAE, VISHNU NAIR, DAVID BEN SHANNON SECTION II: Language as bodily and material 2a Language as bodily and material ROSIE FLEWITT, RACHEL HOLMES, CHRISTINA MACRAE 2b Making time for unruliness in the special education classroom: Resisting the narrowing of neurotypicality in England YVONNE WILLIAMS and DAVID BEN SHANNON 2c Letting things become what they want to become: Uncertainty, improvisation, and resisting the tyranny of talk CHARLOTTE ARCULUS 2d Facilitating expressive language through body movements: Clinical implications MAYA LEELA 2e Speech Bubbles: How play, joy, and storytelling open up expansive possibilities for language ADAM POWER-ANNAND with ABIGAIL HACKETT 2f Coming together: Roundtable discussion on language as bodily and material CHARLOTTE ARCULUS, RACHEL HOLMES, MAYA LEELA, CHRISTINA MACRAE, ADAM POWER-ANNAND, DAVID BEN SHANNON, YVONNE WILLIAMS SECTION III: Place and language 3a Place and Language WARDA FARAH, VISHNU NAIR, DAVID BEN SHANNON 3b Researching language and place: What is the evidence base? ABIGAIL HACKETT and DAVID BEN SHANNON 3c Rituals, vocalisations and creating comfortable spaces: A spatialised view of young children’s language in museums ABI HACKETT, CHRISTINA MACRAE, DAVID BEN SHANNON, ROBERT CHESTER, LUCY COOKE, ESTHER HALLBERG, GEORGINA SIMMONS, LAURA SMITH-HIGGINS, SALLY TOON 3d Spaces of Reprieve: An emancipatory practice centring Black and Brown children labelled with communication difficulties WARDA FARAH and VISHNU NAIR 3e The entanglement between signed language, embodiment, and place LEALA HOLCOMB 3f Coming together: Roundtable discussion on place and language WARDA FARAH, ABI HACKETT, LEALA HOLCOMB, VISHNU KK NAIR, DAVID BEN SHANNON SECTION IV: Language beyond meaning 4a Language beyond meaning KHAWLA BADWAN, RUTH CHURCHILL DOWER, ABIGAIL HACKETT 4b Beyond ‘deficit’ or ‘lack’: Enjoying the richness of language and meaning-making in a complex early childhood classroom WILLOW SPENCER, JESS CLARKE, DAVID BEN SHANNON 4c How might body-listening open up space for body-languaging? RUTH CHURCHILL DOWER 4d Who chooses my words? ANDREA LEE 4e Listening Body LOUISE KLARNETT 4f Coming together: Roundtable discussion on language beyond meaning RUTH CHURCHILL DOWER, ABIGAIL HACKETT, ANDREA LEE, DAVID BEN SHANNON SECTION V: Rights of the Talker 5. The Rights of the Talker. A manifesto for chattering, whispering, translanguaging, not-speaking, non-verbalising, screeching, signing, clicking, twirling, stimming, assistive technology-ing, jumping, shouting, grasping, gasping, dancing, drawing, repeating, refusing, gesturing, glancing, smirking, eye-rolling, whistling…… ABIGAIL HACKETT, KHAWLA BADWAN, RUTH CHURCHILL DOWER, ESTER EHIYAZARYAN-WHITE, WARDA FARAH, ROSIE FLEWITT, KAREN GRAINGER, RACHEL HOLMES, CHRISTINA MACRAE, VISHNU NAIR, DAVID BEN SHANNON
Khawla Badwan is Reader in TESOL and Applied Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Ruth Churchill Dower is a PhD scholar at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, exploring young children's nonlingual ways of being through experiments in movement. Warda Farah is a Social Entrepreneur, Speech & Language Therapist, Writer and Consultant. Rosie Flewitt is Professor of Early Childhood Communication at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Abigail Hackett is a Professor of Childhood and Education at Sheffield Hallam University. Rachel Holmes is a Professor in the Education and Social Research Institute of Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Christina MacRae is a Visiting Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University. Vishnu KK Nair is a Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at University of Reading. David Ben Shannon is a Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Sheffield.
Reviews for Language, Place, and the Body in Childhood Literacies: Theory, Practice, and Social Justice
'This exemplary book goes far beyond simple meanings and interpretations about language, to reconceptualise language as multimodal and embodied in spoken and signed words, created with machines and symbols, danced, painted … and always connected to place. The interdisciplinary authors are academics, pedagogues, located in communities and various practitioners who give us new insights into how children create their own language in their unique learning ecologies and share what this actually looks like in their lifeworlds.' - Nicola Yelland, Professor of Early Childhood Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia 'If “it takes a village to raise a child,” this book powerfully shows that it is not only the people in the village, but the land, objects, and the whole host of non-human beings there who shape this development. The book demonstrates that language and cognition are embodied, shaped by an ecology of expansive social and material resources. How children draw from all the resources in their environment to think and talk in creative, spontaneous, and unorthodox ways suggests a complex language development. Judging their communication as deficient stems from our limited ideological assumptions. This book educates scholars to expand their perspectives by listening to the more-than-human communication “out of the mouth of babes and infants”!' - Suresh Canagarajah, Evan Pugh University Professor, Pennsylvania State University, USA 'If you are interested in how, why and when children communicate, you will be informed, provoked, stimulated and engaged by this collection of papers. Rejecting simple and reductive approaches, the authors collectively show that children’s languaging practices are full-bodied, material, placed, unpredictable and delightfully opaque and slippery.' - Pat Thomson, Professor of Education, The University of Nottingham, UK
