The purpose of the study is to investigate the toddlers’ communicative strategies to the teachers in their way to reach influence in the preschool. The purpose is to make further investigations how teachers’ common experiences and interpretations of toddlers’ communicative signals to reach influence. The questions are: How the toddlers communicate to the teachers, their wish to take part of influence in the preschool? How do the toddlers reveal their intersubjective ability, in the communication with the teachers? How can teachers’ experiences help us to interpret the toddlers’ communicative strategies to their influence?

We’ve used a qualitative research, with a phenomenological base, to carry out our study. The 1^st step was to observe 1-2 years old toddlers, in two different units in a preschool. The 2^nd step was to implement focus group discussionswith the teachers in the two different units. This two-combined steps gave us a lot of empiric material.

Our theoretical approach is based on the theory of phenomenology of perception (Maurice Merleau-Ponty) and the theory of intersubjectivity (Daniel Stern). With the concepts: life-world, the sense of a subjective self and the sense of a verbal self, we seek the essence of how the toddlers use the body language to think, perceive and experience themselves in their communication to the teachers to reach influence.

Investigations show that when the toddlers capture the teachers’ confirmation to influence, the body language changes to a proud straight posture, with belly up, and shoulders backwards. Their eyes get bigger. Their body language also changes when they want to show their dissatisfaction, in these situations where the confirmation from the teachers did not work. They turn their body and face away, from the teachers. The research also shows that the toddlers’ noise gets more intense when they want to clarify their communication to the teachers. Even the body movement’s strengths by making the body longer, and they also repeat the movement again. The toddlers also imitate a body movement between the child and the teacher, in a shared common experience, that they had done together in the past. The research also shows that even if the toddlers don’t have a well-developed verbal language yet, they are qualified to share their intentions to the teachers, through their body language. When these communications work out well, the toddlers’ sense of the intersubjective self grows and develops. This way opens up for the way when the toddlers’ sense of verbal self, starts. When the teachers are present and empathetic, and the toddlers are confirmed, they continue to develop as self-sensing individuals, which strengthens their belief in their own skills. This allows the children to learn that they have rights to influence over their daily lives and themselves, even in the age of the toddler and further.