Makingplay

A good story about a good story

A paper developed from my doctoral research was just published in the journal "Child Development." It is definitely an event worth celebrating for me. It is a sweet reward to be published in a top notch journal after working very hard in graduate school at Clark University. I'm celebrating this with my co-author Dr. Elaine Reese now at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

The paper is titled "A Good Story: Children With Imaginary Companions Create Richer Narratives" and it is about the linguistic benefits of children playing with imaginary friends. For me it is a huge honor to contribute to the academic literature that shows the developmental benefits of play.

Here is the abstract: In line with theories that children's pretend play reflects and extends their narrative skills, children with imaginary companions were predicted to have better narrative skills than children without imaginary companions. Forty-eight 5½-year-old children and their mothers participated in interviews about children's imaginary companions. Children also completed language and narrative assessments. Twenty-three of the children (48%) were deemed to have engaged in imaginary companion play. Children with and without imaginary companions were similar in their vocabulary skills, but children with imaginary companions told richer narratives about a storybook and a personal experience compared to children without imaginary companions. This finding supports theories of a connection between pretend play and storytelling by the end of early childhood.

Time to celebrate!

Short films continued: Kids + Money

 

The 8th edition of the Wholphin quarterly film collection includes Lauren Greenfield’s documentary “kids + money” (2009 Sundance Short Award winner). The film documents teens in L.A. sharing their thoughts on money “getting it, spending it and learning to live without it.”

I can’t wait to catch this film because it takes these teens seriously. So often adults dismiss children's views on money as naive. In the current economy the future design of successful financial services will need to take into account the experience of children who have grown up during the recession.

Granted these kids experiences are very L.A., but their extreme points of view can help us understand a lot about the collective consciousness of American teens.

Being a teenager ain't easy

I found this short film last week and have found my thoughts returning to it often. "I Love Sarah Jane" is an Australian Short that showed at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

The film's writers and director have taken a traditional coming of age story and set it in the middle of a post apocalyptic Zombie plague. The film captures the violence teenage boys are capable of and juxtaposes it against the strength required to become a young woman (particularly when surrounded by obnoxious teen boys). Oh, and it is a love story too.

The perfect blend of Greek tragedy, B-movie Zombies and The Catcher in the Rye.

Design parenting

I thought this was a really interesting example of mindful parenting. An article from insidetoronto.com tells the story of parents who stipulated that their 13 year old Even Spenser read the Geneva Conventions (and abide by them) in order to play Call of Duty 4: Worlds at War with his friends.

While the game doesn't really allows players to follow the conventions it is an intriguing example of parents opening up a dialogue with their child on a very complex subject matter. This is a great example of design thinking by the Spenser's, avoiding either/or logic (you can't play at all) and designing new solutions to a complex parenting challenge.

I wonder why none of the popular war games includes realistic representations of the Geneva Conventions as part of the simulated gaming experience?

Play is about stretching...

"In play, a child is always about his average age, above his daily behavior; in play, it is as though he were a head taller than himself." Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

makingplay will explore the intersection of design thinking, the transformative power of play, and designing for children. While this may sound like a stretch, upcoming posts will explore the connections and the possibilities each of these themes inspire.

Above: Let Children be Children Series, Lewis W. Hines; George Eastman House collection.