![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
In contrast to studies focusing on digital games as learning tools, this study shows how young children use digital games as a means of facilitating spontaneous play in their everyday lives. This article highlights how 4 three-year-old children’s play with digital games revealed their ability to create new forms of play by mixing their digital game play and other play in real life. In addition, this study shows various examples of young children breaking game boundaries (e.g. rule-breaking; using virtual space as a source for their spontaneous play; navigating between virtual and physical space for their play) in their digital game playing. This finding suggests that digital games do not entirely change or displace other practices in early childhood, but young children’s digital game play is very closely related to their spontaneous play as it occurs in their everyday lives. Young children are agentic and capable users of digital technologies, incorporating the digital world for their own purposes.
References
Section:
|
Anderson, CA, Dill, KE (2000) Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78(4): 772–790. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Angry Birds (2009). Available at: https://www.angrybirds.com/ Google Scholar | |
|
Avedon, EM, Sutton-Smith, B (1971) The Study of Games. New York: Wiley. Google Scholar | |
|
Bakhtin, MM (1981) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. Holquist, M . Trans. Emerson, C, Holquist, M. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Bakhtin, MM (1986) Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Ed. Emerson, C, Holquist, M. Trans. McGee, VW . Austin, TX: University of Austin Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Bakhtin, MM (1990) Art and Answerability: Early Philosophical Essays. Ed. Holquist, M, Liapunov, V. Trans. Liapunov, V, Brostrom, K. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Bishop, JC, Curtis, M (2006) Participation, popular culture and playgrounds: Children’s uses of media elements in peer play at school. In: Folklore Society Conference, London, UK, 31 March–1 April. Google Scholar | |
|
Bremer, J (2005) The Internet and children: Advantages and disadvantages. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America 14(3): 405–428. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | |
|
Caillois, R (1961) Man, Play, and Games. New York: Free Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Cake Pop Maker (2012). Available at: http://www.bmcm.com/ Google Scholar | |
|
Cut the Rope (2010). Available at: http://www.chillingo.com/ Google Scholar | |
|
Edmiston, B (2007) Forming Ethical Identities in Early Childhood Play. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Edmiston, B (2010) Playing with children, answering with our lives: A Bakhtinian approach to coauthoring ethical identities in early childhood. British Journal of Educational Studies 58(2): 197–211. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Fein, G (1995) Toys and stories. In: Pellegrini, AD (ed.) A Multidisciplinary Inquiry into the Contributions of Brian Sutton-Smith. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pp. 151–165. Google Scholar | |
|
Gee, JP (2003) What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Grand Theft Auto (1997) Available at: http://www.rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto/ Google Scholar | |
|
Gros, B (2007) Digital games in education: The design of games-based learning environments. Journal of Research on Technology in Education 40(1): 23–38. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Hewes, J (2014) Seeking balance in motion: The role of spontaneous free play in promoting social and emotional health in early childhood care and education. Children 1(3): 280–301. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | |
|
Hughes, FP (2003) Spontaneous play in the 21st century. In: Saracho, ON, Spodek, B (eds) Contemporary Perspectives on Play in Early Childhood Education. Greenwich, CT: Information Age, pp. 21–39. Google Scholar | |
|
Huh, YJ (2016) Rethinking young children’s digital game play outside of the home as a means of coping with modern life. Early Child Development and Care 187(5–6): 1042–1054. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Huizinga, J (1949) Homo Ludens. Trans. Hull, RFC . London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Google Scholar | |
|
Jackson, LA, Von Eye, A, Fitzgerald, HE. (2011) Internet use, videogame playing and cell phone use as predictors of children’s body mass index (BMI), body weight, academic performance, and social and overall self-esteem. Computers in Human Behavior 27(1): 599–604. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Li, X, Atkins, MS, Stanton, B (2006) Effects of home and school computer use on school readiness and cognitive development among Head Start children: A randomized controlled pilot trial. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 52(2): 239–263. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Liberman, DA, Fisk, MC, Biely, E (2009) Digital games for young children ages three to six: From research to design. Computers in the Schools 26(4): 299–313. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Linderoth, J, Mortensen, TE (2015) Dark play: The aesthetics of controversial playfulness. In: Mortensen, TE, Linderoth, J, Brown, AM (eds) The Dark Side of Game Play: Controversial Issues in Playful Environments. New York: Routledge, pp. 3–14. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Macherey, P (1978) A Theory of Literary Production. Trans. Wall, G . London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Google Scholar | |
|
Marsh, J (2010) Young children’s play in online virtual worlds. Journal of Early Childhood Research 8(1): 23–39. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Marsh, J, Bishop, J (2013) Changing Play: Play, Media and Commercial Culture from the 1950s to the Present Day. New York: Open University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Mitrofan, O, Paul, M, Spencer, N (2009) Is aggression in children with behavioural and emotional difficulties associated with television viewing and video game playing? A systematic review. Child 35(1): 5–15. Google Scholar | |
|
Oblinger, D (2004) The next generation of educational engagement. Journal of Interactive Media in Education 2004(8). Available at: http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/article/download/2004-8-oblinger/199/ Google Scholar | |
|
Ostrov, JM, Gentile, DA, Crick, NR (2006) Media exposure, aggression and prosocial behavior during early childhood: A longitudinal study. Social Development 15(4): 612–627. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Poels, K, De Kort, Y, IJsselsteijn, W (2007) It is always a lot of fun! Exploring dimensions of digital game experience using focus group methodology. In: Proceeding of the 2007 Conference on Future Play. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 83–89. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Prensky, M (2001) Digital Game-Based Learning. New York: McGraw-Hill. Google Scholar | |
|
Provenzo, EF (1991) Video Kids: Making Sense of Nintendo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Rowsell, J (2014) Toward a phenomenology of contemporary reading. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 37(2): 117–127. Google Scholar | |
|
Salen, K, Zimmerman, E (2004) Rules of Play: Fundamentals of Game Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Sprinkle Junior (2011) Available at: http://www.sprinklegame.com/sprinklejunior/ Google Scholar | |
|
Sutton-Smith, B (2001) Emotional breaches in play and narrative. In: Göncü, A, Klein, EL (eds) Children in Play, Story and School. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 161–176. Google Scholar | |
|
Sutton-Smith, B (2008) Play theory: A personal journey and new thoughts. American Journal of Play 1(1): 80–123. Google Scholar | |
|
Sutton-Smith, B (2011) The antipathies of play. In: Pellegrini, AD (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Development of Play. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 110–118. Google Scholar | |
|
Tamboukou, M, Ball, SJ (2003) Dangerous encounters: Genealogy and ethnography. New York: Peter Lang. Google Scholar | |
|
Team Umizoomi: Catch That Shape Bandit (n.d.). Available at: http://www.nickjr.com/games/umi-shape-bandit-game.jhtml Google Scholar | |
|
Tobin, J (2000) “Good Guys Don’t Wear Hats”: Children’s Talk about the Media. New York: Teachers College Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Tobin, S (2013) Portable Play in Everyday Life: The Nintendo DS. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Verenikina, I, Kervin, L (2011) iPads, digital play and preschoolers. He Kupu 2(5): 4–19. Google Scholar | |
|
Vološinov, VN (1973) Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Trans. Matejka, L, Titunik, IR. New York: Seminar Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Vygotsky, LS (1987) Thinking and speech. In: Rieber, RW, Carton, AS (eds) The Collected Works of LS Vygotsky, Volume 1: Problems of General Psychology. New York: Plenum, pp. 53–92. Google Scholar | |
|
Where’s My Water (2011). Available at: http://games.disney.com/wheres-my-water-app Google Scholar | |
|
Williams, D (2006) A brief social history of game play. In: Vorderer, P, Bryant, J (eds) Playing Computer Games: Motive, Responses, and Consequences. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 229–247. Google Scholar | |
|
Wilson, D, Sicart, M (2010) Now it’s personal: On abusive game design. In: Proceedings of the International Academic Conference on the Future of Game Design and Technology. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 40–47. Google Scholar | Crossref |
