Affordances of Media as Learning and Play: Children’s and Mothers’ Conceptions

Educational and playful forms of media are both pervasive in children’s media landscape. Children tend to see play and learning as distinct, whereas parents tend to recognize the overlap between these categories; however, little research investigates children’s and parents’ conceptions of media as learning or play. Children (N = 80, five- and seven-year-olds) and mothers (N = 40) were shown black-and-white line drawings representing a child engaging in both media and non-media activities and asked to categorize each image as learning/not learning and as play/not play. Both mothers and children were less likely to see media as learning than non-media activities. However, children were less likely than mothers to differentiate between media and non-media activities in their conceptions of play. Both mothers and children were less likely to conceive of media activities than non-media activities as both learning and play, but this effect was stronger for mothers. These results suggest that mothers may see media more negatively and/or instrumentally, whereas children may see media as one of many options for playtime, indicating that parents should be encouraged to see media in a playful light, alongside other non-digital options for childhood play.