Children’s agency. Mentally linked and digitally connected, but are they heard? The integration of internet of toys in early childhood education: Research from Australia, England, and Norway

The aim of the study is to report on children’s perceptions of what they think and do during play with the Internet of Toys (IoToys). The research questions are: 1) How do children interact with IoToys? 2) What roles do children perceive they have during interactions with IoToys? 3) What is the children’s perception of the robot toys they play and interact with?

The results provide increased understanding of how children choose to engage in play. For example, children express enjoyment when encoding their toys to perform their mission. The robot-like toy that has interactive features becomes part of the child’s imagination, and the children begin to talk about the toys as if they were human, considering them capable of responding to the child’s coded commands and performing the specified tasks. The children’s stories, which play key roles in the games they have interacted with, show their new linguistic and mathematical development.

Observations were made of video recordings of a total of 12 children from four kindergartens in three countries (Australia, Norway, England) aged four to six years while interacting with IoToys. Data collection took place over a period of eight weeks.

Kewalramani, S., Palaiologou, I., & Dardanou, M. (2023). Children’s agency. Mentally linked and digitally connected, but are they heard? The integration of internet of toys in early childhood education: Research from Australia, England, and Norway. Routledge, 125–146. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003185840