Children, adults, and online sociodramatic play in the family home

This thesis addresses the contemporary dilemma that children and adults have different lived experiences and perspectives of online play. Specifically, it identifies notable points of commonality and tension occurring between 8- to 12-year-old children and their caregivers (e.g., parents, grandparents) in relation to online sociodramatic play within the blended ecology of family homes in a digitised society. Online sociodramatic play sees children creating and enacting imaginary play situations with each other in a virtual world environment via video chat whilst they are physically located in their separate homes (Caughey et al., 2024). Research indicates that online sociodramatic play provides opportunities for the current generation of children to reap a range of cognitive benefits such as development of imagination and memory (Caughey, 2021). Identifying the complex nature of the commonalities and tensions under investigation was achieved by conceptualising online sociodramatic play as “institution” using Hedegaard’s (2009) model of child learning and development through participation in institutionalised practice. The upper tier of Hedegaard’s (2009) cultural-historical model was informed by Vygotsky’s (1930/1978) concept of mediation and practice theory (Kemmis et al., 2014; Schatzki, 2012) to gain insight into the specific types of caregiver practices guiding 8- to 12-year-old children’s participation in online sociodramatic play in the family home and cultural artifacts mediating these practices. The lower tier of Hedegaard’s (2009) model was informed by Vygotsky’s (1933–1934/1998a) periodisation of child development, with a particular focus on the crises of age theory, to better understand children’s motives for engaging in online sociodramatic play and their perspectives of caregiver practices guiding participation in such play in the family home. Philosophically underpinned by the qualitative research tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology and guided by a co-design research approach, this investigation employed a case study design to identify commonalities and tensions constituting the institution of online sociodramatic play. The study was conducted with 8- to 12-year-old children who regularly engage in online sociodramatic play, and their caregivers, from four different families. These families participated in a range of creative, collaborative data gathering activities that were specifically designed to gain insight into their lived experiences, understandings, and perspectives of online sociodramatic play. Findings indicated five predominant caregiver practices (e.g., scheduling online play, allocating household spaces for online play) guiding 8- to 12-year-old children’s participation in online sociodramatic play in the blended ecology of the family home. Such practices were described as being simultaneously mediated by long-established cultural artifacts (e.g., child-centred philosophies, family norms) and recently established cultural artifacts (e.g., parenting websites advising screen time limits, digital learning policies in schools). Children in the 8- to 12-year-old age group were found to be highly cognitively and socially motivated to engage in online sociodramatic play. They also agreed with some mediated caregiver practices whilst strongly disagreeing with others. Jointly, these findings informed the identification of six notable points of commonality, such as using timed reminders to end online play, and six notable points of tension, such as limiting or disallowing time for online play after school, occurring between 8- to 12-year-old children and their caregivers to constitute the institution of online sociodramatic play. The six tensions suggested that some mediated practices in the home potentially restrict the cognitive developmental needs of 8- to 12-year-old children and the social developmental needs of 10- to 12-year-old children in relation to online sociodramatic play. In response to these findings, two theoretically based propositions were developed to guide the creation of new cultural artifacts that could better inform the current (and future) generation of caregivers about supporting the unique developmental needs of 8- to 12-year-old children who enjoy engaging in online sociodramatic play.