Argumentative strategies in young children: An study of disputes during play in school contexts

In this paper, a model is tested for its adequacy to describe and evaluate argumentative strategies in 3, 4 and 5-year old children in a kindergarten context. The data consist of the observation of children's interactions in natural play settings in kindergartens in Buenos Aires city. The results show that the proposed model is valid for institutional contexts. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that children mainly produce statements of argumentative opposition without using structured arguments (reason-conclusion), which could be a characteristic of a proto-argumentative phase. It also shows that among 5-year olds the ad populum argumentative scheme is used recurrently.