Digital play: a new classification

This paper draws on an ESRC-funded study of play and creativity in preschool-aged children’s use of apps in the UK. The main objectives of the study were to collect information about access to and use of apps in the home, establish the most popular apps and identify the features of those apps that are successful in promoting play and creativity. A mixed-method approach was used to collect data, including video filming of children using the most popular apps. In identifying play types that emerged in the analysis of data, the team utilised an established taxonomy, which outlines sixteen play types. This taxonomy was reviewed and adapted to analyse data from the project relating to digital play. Through this process, an additional type of play, transgressive play, was identified and added to the taxonomy. The paper outlines the implications of the revised taxonomy for future studies of play.

"This study has indicated that Hughes’ taxonomy can be applied in a digital context, albeit with appropriate adaptations. It has demonstrated that what changes in digital contexts is not so much the types of play possible, but the nature of that play. Contemporary play draws on both the digital and non-digital properties of things and in doing so moves fluidly across boundaries of space and time in ways that were not possible in the pre-digital era. The findings of this study provide a counterpoint to those who seek to dichotomise digital and non-digital play, suggesting that play with digital technologies is not ‘real play’ (Palmer 2016)." (March et al., 2016: 250). Hughes’ taxonomy of play ( see Hughes, B. 2002. A Playworker’s Taxonomy of Play Types. 2nd ed. London: PlayLink) should be extended to incude ‘transgressive play’, it can be applied to digital play.