Exploring Young Children's Many Forms of Game Play: An Ethnographic Case Study

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Children as Active Agents: Game Players, Curriculum Designers, Actors of Violence, and Digital Curators

Abstract

This study is a ethnographic case study of four three-year-old children and their families; by combining ethnographic methods and Baktinian interpretative analysis, the resulting analyses have the potential to add to the existing cultural and educational understanding of young children’s digital game play as a meaningful form play in early childhood. In contrast to studies that focus on digital games as learning tools, this study shows how young children use digital games as means of facilitating spontaneous play in their everyday life. This study suggests that digital games do not entirely change or displace other practices in early childhood; rather, they are integrated into young children’s existing practices, thus creating a new type of play.

Author

• Youn Jung Huh, Salem State University