Children's development of facework practices—An emotional endeavor

This article addresses the origin and development of facework practices in young children by focusing on two kinds of practices in child–parent interaction: (1) situations in which a child's verbal and nonverbal emotive expressions indicate a need to save face; and (2) situations in which a child uses various strategies in order to save face. Through illustrations from a longitudinal material of child–adult interaction it is argued that emotive reactions constitute the base for face awareness in children. This awareness in time turns to child facework practices, a process aided and shaped by the interactional routines with parents. The central aim of the article is to highlight these two aspects of facework, one internal, emotional and related to face; the other external and interactional. As a second aim the article will enforce that the way we analyze interaction must be transparent in that it can be understood, reviewed and contested by others.

► Face is described as anchored in facework through social emotions such as shame/embarrassment.
► Experiences of shame/embarrassment make children aware of face in interaction.
► In the beginning parents do facework on behalf of their children.
► As children get older changes in parental behavior forces children to do facework themselves.