ABSTRACT
Much of the author's knowledge about individual children's goals and strategies in social interaction comes from two impressive observational studies, both of which started around 1970: Margaret Manning, and Hubert Montagner. Hubert Montagner wanted to 'discover the manner in which communication develops at a time when language has not yet appeared'. He filmed children aged between seven and thirty-six months in a crèche and three-to six-year-olds in a Nursery School and comments about how their interaction styles endure through to the Primary School. Margaret Manning's investigation centred on a narrower theme – is it possible to classify three-to five-year-olds according to their dominant style of hostility, and if so, do the groups share other characteristics? Manning's specific specialists are equivalent to a combination of Montagner's leaders and the ones he saw who are dominated but nevertheless resemble leaders. This chapter follows Manning in distinguishing just three styles which the author called leaders, teasers and attention seekers.
