Cartoons, reflective dialogues, and metacognitive engagement in early childhood

Research increasingly challenges the assumption that metacognition develops in later childhood by demonstrating young children’s metacognitive competencies. However, examining how these competencies emerge in naturalistic contexts remains methodologically challenging. This exploratory multiple-case study examined metacognitive engagement through cartoons and reflective dialogues in early childhood. In the first phase, 55 cartoon episodes were analysed to identify metacognitive content. Based on this analysis, cartoon-viewing and cartoon-plus-reflective-dialogue conditions were designed. In the second phase, three preschool children participated in a comparison condition, a cartoon-only condition, or a cartoon-plus-reflective-dialogue condition for two weeks. Data were collected through contextualised task observations, interviews with mothers, and field notes, and analysed using observational content and thematic analyses. Findings indicated that all participants demonstrated observable metacognitive competencies during task engagement, with metacognitive regulation appearing more frequently than metacognitive knowledge. Engagement patterns differed across conditions. Compared with the comparison case, children in the two intervention conditions demonstrated more frequent planning, monitoring, evaluation, and verbal self-reflection during post-task observations. While the cartoon-only condition appeared associated with greater task organisation and collaborative problem-solving, the cartoon-plus-reflective-dialogue condition demonstrated more extensive self-reflective commentary and verbal regulation. The study contributes to methodological discussions on ecologically assessing young children’s metacognitive processes.