No abstract

The discussion around children's digital game culture has resulted in two contradictory images of children: the passive, antisocial children uncritically and mechanically consuming digital game content and the active, social children creatively using and interacting with digital game content. Our aim is to examine how these seemingly contradictory ideas of "active" and "passive" children could be considered. By means of empirical examples of children playing digital dress-up and makeover games, we will point out that for the successful use of these concepts, they need to be thoroughly contextualized. By discussing the context and referent of activity and passivity, it is possible to overcome the unnecessary polarization of the discourses on children's digital game culture. If the purpose is to advance the multidisciplinary discussion on digital games and childhood, the naive or careless use of the concepts of activity and passivity should be avoided.

This study investigated the use of a playful, narrative, vignette-based method, called Story Magician’s Play Time (SMPT), in supporting children’s social-emotional reasoning and in helping children practice their social skills. We set out to examine (a) in what ways children use SMPT sessions to explore social interaction situations and to practice social skills, and (b) what story content and narrative play behavior during the SMPT sessions reveal about the social-emotional competence of children, in terms of acquisition and performance skills. The data were collected during SMPT storytelling sessions where 5- to 6-year-old children narrated stories of familiar but challenging daily situations and enacted their story in play. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results suggest that the children had knowledge of socially responsible behaviors, but that they also had difficulties executing these behaviors in play. SMPT enabled the children to participate, experiment, and reflect on the emotions and strategies needed for developing socially sustainable solutions.

The potential of digital games to enhance learning in different areas of child development has drawn increasing interest amid growing concern about children's emotional well-being, social-emotional difficulties, and problem behaviors alongside diminishing economic resources for intervention and habilitation. However, digital games designed to promote social-emotional competence are surprisingly scarce. In this chapter, we explore children's use of the digital game Emotion Detectives (ED), designed to promote children's acquisition of emotional knowledge skills (e.g., recognizing, appreciating, and understanding emotions and their expressions), prosocial behaviors (e.g., helping, sharing, comforting, and showing concern for others), and problem-solving abilities. Analyzing children's gameplay sessions in two Finnish day care centers improved understanding of children's gameplay experiences, social-emotional knowledge, and collaborative learning. From the double effect of practicing socialemotional skills simultaneously in the game and in peer interactions, ED has the potential to be an effective learning environment for children. The game's humorous features, creative opportunities, and possibilities to make progress while playing clearly motivated children to learn.

Finnish and Greek early childhood teachers' perspectives and practices in supporting children's autonomy Kindergarten teachers from different cultural backgrounds attribute various meanings to children's autonomy. There seems to be cultural differences in early childhood education curricula with regards to how a child's autonomy is described and how it is supported. This qualitative study asks: How do teachers narrate their perspective and pedagogical support of children's autonomy, and what kinds of similarities and differences in the pedagogy and practices can be found in Finnish and Greek early childhood education (ECEC) contexts? The data of this qualitative study consist of a semi-structured questionnaire of 14 kindergarten teachers and observations of their pedagogical practices in the day care groups of 4-to 5-year-old children. The results suggest teachers' overall conception of autonomy was identical, but the different cultural contexts and curriculums affected the way the teachers emphasised and valued different dimensions of autonomy.