An animated story created by a group of young children.

The study describes and explores how different storytelling techniques and modalities (ways of communicating) contribute to the development of an animated story created by six children (aged four to five years) in collaboration with a kindergarten teacher. The research question is: In what ways do the different storytelling techniques and narrative elements affect the development of an animated story created by this group of children and a kindergarten teacher?

The analysis shows how the animated story develops through the collaborative process and how different ways of communicating and narrative elements contribute to the story. The study shows that all modalities play an important role in the final story, including verbal narration, moving images, music, and written text. The results show the importance of including both process and product in analyses of children's creative processes and recognising how different elements affect the final product.

The data consists of six hours of video recording over nine days, and an iPad and apps such as Stop Motion Studio and iMovie were used. The kindergarten teacher encouraged the children regarding active participation and dialogue about the story. The researcher observed and took notes while the activities were video recorded to capture the complex communication and the development of the process.

Undheim, M. & Hoel, T. (2021). "An animated story created by a group of young children". Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 23(3):374-400.