Designing Stories to Inspire Preschoolers’ Creative, Collaborative Roleplay

Authors

Kyle Diederich, St. Norbert College
Flannery Hope Currin, University of Iowa
Luiza Superti Pantoja, Sago Mini, Canada
Hannah Cargo, University of Iowa
Noelle Franzone, University of Iowa
Josephine Geiger-Lee, University of Iowa
Juan Pablo Hourcade, University of Iowa

Files

Description

Young children's interactions with media influence their social play, which impacts their development. Seven years ago, at the start of a project developing a system to support preschool children's creative, collaborative roleplay, we identified a need for children's media specifically intended to set up play. In this paper, we present best practices (e.g., designing a balanced cast of characters with complementary skills) and lessons learned (e.g., to proactively counter themes that may encourage stereotypical play) over the course of this project. We also describe our ongoing and planned future work which aims to provide additional scaffolding for children who need extra support to engage with their peers and to create abstractions based on what we have found works well so others can leverage that knowledge as they create their own content.

Publication Date

9-6-2023

Keywords

digital narratives, preschool children, sociodramatic play, social skills development

Comments

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Recommended Citation

Diederich, Kyle; Currin, Flannery Hope; Superti Pantoja, Luiza; Cargo, Hannah; Franzone, Noelle; Geiger-Lee, Josephine; and Hourcade, Juan Pablo, "Designing Stories to Inspire Preschoolers’ Creative, Collaborative Roleplay" (2023). Faculty Creative and Scholarly Works. 63.
https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/faculty_staff_works/63