Children's I-poems

Listening through play-based methods (LIME): Young children’s experiences of family life in the aftermath of a global pandemic is a British Academy funded project that ran between October 2023 and March 2025. The project explored how to capture young children’s voices and experiences of family focusing on their verbal and non-verbal expressions during play.

Eighteen children aged 3 to 4 took part in sensory tuff tray activities, storytelling and draw-and-tell play sessions across three early childhood settings. Children’s expressions were recorded and noted down during play. The Listening Guide, a method for analysis that focuses on ‘I’ expressions in the data, was adapted and applied to illustrate children’s voices and experiences. This led to series of I-poems giving us insight into children’s sayings, doings, experiences and playfulness.

This collection showcases poems from the project, alongside children’s drawings. It is intended to portray family as 3- and 4-years old children knew it in 2024.