Child's Play: A Comparison of Desktop and Physical Interactive Environments

The importance of play in young children’s lives cannot be minimized. From teddy bears to blocks, children’s experiences with the tools of play can impact their social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. Today, the tools of play now include desktop computers and computerenhanced physical environments. In this paper, we consider the merits of desktop and physical environments for young children (4-6 years old), by comparing the same contentinfused game in both contexts. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used for data collection and analysis. In this paper we also discuss the process of working with children of multiple age groups to develop the physical computer-enhanced environment