Understanding Toddlers’ Rights: Ownership, Influence, and Equality

"Young Children's Enactments of Human Rights in Early Childhood Education" was written by Dr. Ann Quennerstedt and published in the International Journal of Early Years Education in 2016. I feel like this piece is absolutely a hidden GEM because it focuses on the ways that very young children demonstrate their rights in ECE settings based on the actions of the children themselves.

So often this age group (1-3) is missing in research because of a perceived inability to access communication. In reality, anyone who has ever worked with toddlers knows how brilliant they are at making their meaning clear. Quennerstedt (2016) argues that verbal communication isn't necessary to observe the ways that toddlers make meaning from their world. Is this making Reggio's 100 languages run through your brain? Me too. We know that cultural context is so important in support young children, yet we continue to push adult culture onto children's culture. The methodology for this research (fancy way to say the plan for the strategies used to gather the information) shifts us towards observing toddlers communication within the context of their own culture by closely observing their actions and allowing their actions to represent their meanings- rather than discarding them because they don't fit adult verbal standards. I'm basically becoming obsessed with this.

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Quick Summary

The study by Quennerstedt (2016) examines how children aged 1–3 enact human rights in preschools through everyday practices, The research emphasizes understanding children's rights from their perspective rather than an adult's, arguing that excluding children’s contributions to knowledge production is unethical. The study discovered that toddlers regularly engage in rights behaviors in around three categories: the right to ownership, the right to influence, and the right to equality. The findings highlight how children negotiate rights within specific contexts like preschool, where power structures and ownership disputes frequently arise. The study challenges educators to connect play with the right to participation, a link that is often overlooked. The author argues that although toddlers are often seen as passive participants in their own care, they understand, implement, and grapple with deep rights concepts of ownership, influence, and equality through their daily interactions.

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This article aligns deeply with my beliefs about human rights in ECE, especially around the importance of the right to play. Within play, we can observe young children developing their understanding of their rights while advocating for their own rights and the rights of others. Seeing play as an essential part of the right to participation is often overlooked in ECE settings, “Bae further finds that teachers rarely position play as connected to the right to participation, and that teachers almost never mention or refer to children under the age of three in discussions about participation.” (Quennerstedt, 2016, p. 6). Meaningful participation requires the autonomy that play provides.

The idea of the right to ownership in young children may at first feel unexpected. “Despite ownership being held as entirely central by most people, it is almost never discussed in relation to children.” (Quennerstedt, 2016, p. 11). Yet ECE settings are uniquely positioned in that they provide quite complicated rules and expectations around ownership. How does a toddler conceptualize their ownership of a toy that belongs to the setting versus a toy that belongs to them from their home? In this study, the author found that, “children work very hard to understand the complex principles of ownership in the preschool and how to act in relation to ownership in this particular setting” (Quennerstedt, 2016, p. 11).

We may never have taken the time to reflect using this language of ownership and rights, but this presents a scene all too familiar to any ECE practitioner: child A setting an item down, and child B picking it up... child A returning, distraught, to find child B holding the item they believed themselves to still own. Or, child A finding child B's special teddy on the floor, picking it up, and walking to a different space to hand it to child B. These all display deep and complex understandings of ownership when we take time to see young children as both capable and worthy of holding and enacting rights.

The study found similar findings in regards to children's right to influence and children's right to equal value. Influence centers around children's voice- verbal and non-verbal- and their ability to change a situation according to their will. In regards to equal value, the study highlights the complex issue of turn-taking as an avenue through which young children understand equality. Dr. Quennerstedt's study provides us with a key position from which to advocate for the right of young children by negating the idea that these children are too young or immature to understand rights.

Reflection Questions

What opportunities do you provide for young children to enact their right to ownership both with personal and shared belongings?

How is young children's non-verbal assent and dissent reflected and respected in your practice?

How can turn-taking develop from young children's understanding of equality rather than from an adult's need for control and simplicity?

In what ways do ECE settings provide unique opportunities for young children to develop their understanding of human rights and in what ways are they at risk of limiting young children's access to human rights?

In reflecting on this work, it's clear that young children’s enactment of their rights in early childhood education goes beyond our traditional understanding of communication and participation. By observing children’s actions through the lens of ownership, influence, and equality, we can see how toddlers express their understanding of fundamental human rights without relying on verbal language. This research calls on educators to reframe their approach to toddler interactions, recognizing that these children are not just passive recipients of care, but active participants in their own right. As we move forward, the challenge lies in integrating this knowledge into our everyday practices, ensuring that we honor and support young children's rights in ways that acknowledge their unique forms of communication and participation.

This article is available OPEN ACCESS here which means you can read the full piece yourself and then come back and share ALL your thoughts with us!

References

Quennerstedt, A. (2016). Young children’s enactments of human rights in early childhood education. International Journal of Early Years Education, 24(1), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2015.1096238