Making choices in digital play spaces: children’s experiences

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Date
2023
Authors
Loudoun, Fiona M.
Boyle, Bryan
Larsson-Lund, Maria
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Taylor and Francis
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Abstract
Background: Digital spaces are rapidly emerging as a space for children to engage in autotelicplay.Aim: To explore and describe children’s experiences of choice-making in their play in digitalspaces from the perspective of children themselves.Methods: Focus groups were conducted with a total of eight children aged six years of agewithin their school, in a large city in Ireland. A Mosaic Approach with drawing, cutting, andcolouring in was used to elicit the children’s voices to ensure their active engagement throughoutthe data collection. Data was analyzed using focus group analysis.Results: Data analysis revealed three main themes; children enjoy the ability to make choices intheir play, that they are often constrained in their ability to make choices, and that they negotiateways in which they can select options for play in digital spaces.Conclusions: Findings indicate that children are agentic individuals who are capable of makingdecisions in their play in digital spaces. This knowledge provides implications for OccupationalTherapists to enhance play as an occupation in digital spaces.
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Keywords
Child-centred , Family , Play , Qualitative , Technology
Citation
Loudoun, F.M., Boyle, B. and Larsson-Lund, M. (2023) ‘Making choices in digital play spaces: children’s experiences’, Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 30(8), pp. 1460–1471. doi: 10.1080/11038128.2023.2271050
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© 2023, The Author(s). Published by informa UK limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/),which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in anyway. the terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.ARTICLE HISTORYReceived 25 April 2023Revised 5 October 2023Accepted 11 October2023KEYWORDSChild-centred; family;play; qualitative;technology