This explorative qualitative study investigated how families engage in mealtime conversations supported with decorated plates that were specially designed to promote family conversations. Our aim was to examine the main thematic and discursive patterns that naturally occurred in these conversations. Six Norwegian families of pre-school children aged 3–6 years were provided with five decorated plates and asked to audio-record their conversations during a meal. Transcripts of the audio-recordings were analysed with manifest content-related analysis, followed by an abductive analysis and a mapping of the main discourse types and interactional patterns. We demonstrate that the conversations displayed great thematic heterogeneity and represented a continuum of extended and non-extended talk, ranging from basic labelling and vocabulary recall to narration, explanation and argumentation. Variable engagement levels among the participants were also noted. We argue that decorated tableware can serve as a valuable tool for studying linguistic input and the nature of adult–child conversations during mealtimes at home and beyond.

这项探索性定性研究调查了家庭如何在专门为促进家庭对话而设计的装饰盘子的支持下进行进餐对话。我们的目的是检查这些对话中自然发生的主要主题和话语模式。向六个 3-6 岁学龄前儿童的挪威家庭提供了五个装饰过的盘子，并要求他们在用餐时对谈话进行录音。通过明显的内容相关分析对录音笔录进行分析，然后进行溯因分析以及主要话语类型和互动模式的映射。我们证明，这些对话表现出巨大的主题异质性，并代表了扩展和非扩展谈话的连续体，范围从基本标签和词汇回忆到叙述、解释和论证。还注意到参与者之间的参与程度存在差异。我们认为，装饰过的餐具可以作为研究语言输入和在家内外进餐期间成人与儿童对话的性质的宝贵工具。