Teletherapy for speech-language therapy (SLT) has become essential for many families. Early intervention for young children is important to ensure that developmental milestones are met. In this study, from a corpus of 10 videos, we present three cases of online and in-person therapy sessions with children between the ages of 3 and 6. Our analysis shows how online and in-person SLT sessions use tools, how they are conscripted into social and transactional moments, and identifies features of tools that support or hinder therapists’ goals (see Figure 1). From our findings, we discuss in detail four overarching features of tools and implications for design. These features support engagement, space usage, child-centred play, and adaptability in therapy sessions. The paper outlines how these features are present in the tools used in SLT, and describes how they impact SLT activities, therapists’ and children's goals, and the environment for social transactional activities.

This paper analyses a novel tangible technology in early childhood environments as a boundary object. Objects in early childhood environments often share space between adults’ and children's objectives. By considering these objects as boundary objects, designers are led to explore how children appropriate objects for playful learning activities beyond adult objectives. This paper discusses Wobblies (see Figure 1), a novel technology probe, to interrogate how a socially-motivated design with conditional and positional interactive behaviour was understandable to children, and how they appropriated the probe in playful activities. We deployed the probe in a rural Australian preschool in a free-play environment. Initial observational findings show that the children understood the procedure of the interactions and moved from exploring to constructive play activities.

Introducing digital literacy to young children develops foundational skills in problem-solving and supports their cognitive development, including critical thinking. However, physical manipulatives for digital literacy are not always designed for early-year environments or specifically for young children. Physical manipulatives can offer developmentally appropriate tools to introduce foundational digital literacy through dynamic system knowledge before children become developmentally ready for more formalised coding activities. This paper presents an initial study in a preschool environment with children (ages 3 – 5 years) using novel physical manipulatives, Embeddables (Fig. 1), in child-led free and guided play activities in a preschool. From our initial analysis of the types of activities the children engaged in, we identify how, firstly, children used the proximal relations to undertake experimental understanding of the devices, which secondly led to using the proximal relationships in their social play, further supported by the scale and feedback of the toys.

This study explores how user gender, agent gender, and control over agent aesthetics affect experiences in a VR phishing awareness training application. As digital agents become more common in immersive training, understanding their design impact is critical. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions: (1) full customization of the agent’s appearance, (2) selection from pre-made agents, or (3) no choice. We measured outcomes including phishing awareness (immediate and retained), mental effort, enjoyment, presence, and relatedness. Results showed no significant effects of user gender or choice condition on awareness, mental effort, or presence. However, female participants reported greater relatedness with their agent at a three-month follow-up, suggesting potential long-term engagement benefits. Aesthetic control did not significantly influence learning or awareness retention, underscoring the importance of content quality over personalization. These findings contribute to research on gender dynamics and customization in immersive learning environments.

Games and play research at CHI employs psychological theory to investigate the ways that varied qualities of people, videogames, and play contexts contribute to nuances in player experience (PX). Play is often characterised as self-endorsed and freely chosen behaviour, and self-determination theory (SDT) proposes that this autonomous quality contributes to wellbeing restoration. However, prior research has produced only inconsistent support for this claim. In this study, 148 participants experienced an autonomy-satisfying or -frustrating puzzle before playing Spore, a videogame likely to satisfy autonomy. Need-frustrated participants showed comparatively greater improvement in autonomy, vitality, and intrinsic motivation when playing Spore, and in-game autonomy satisfaction was shown to index post-play wellbeing outcomes. However, further results were mixed, and only competence frustration was found to predict ill-being outcomes. These findings are contextualised by post-study interviews that investigate the ways that autonomy, wellbeing, and motivation emerge in and through play in daily life.

This paper outlines the theory-driven design and development of Puppy Island, a serious game for children aged three to five who are living with the chronic illness cystic fibrosis. Puppy Island differs from typical serious games, as its central learning and design objectives relate to long-term wellbeing and empowerment rather than short-term knowledge transfer. The Early Years Learning Framework and Self-Determination Theory informed the design and development of the iPad prototype, while domain experts from industry, academia and the broader cystic fibrosis community were consulted to establish user requirements and evaluate the iterative designs. We analyse the development process, domain expert feedback, and how the game's features relate to core theoretical pillars in order to highlight key lessons that can be applied to future work on serious games with comparable aims or target audiences.

Modding, the act of custom creation in videogames, is a large enterprise comprising millions of people. Despite the large number of individuals creating mods, our understanding of who modders are and their motivation for modding is limited. This is especially true for minority groups, including women. In prior research with modding communities, women modders were consistently underrepresented. Using a mixed-method survey (N = 68) that incorporates the Serious Leisure Framework, this study begins to unravel women's participation in modding activities. We begin to identify who women modders are, examine what motivates them to mod, and investigate their modding practices. Results show that women modders value the creation of multiple mod types, including cosmetic, environmental and gameplay modification. They are primarily motivated by self-gratification and enjoyment. These findings create new insights into how women interact with gaming environments, as well as identifying those aspects of the experience that motivate women's engagement in modding.

People often use videogames to restore wellbeing after negative experiences in day-to-day life. Although some research suggests that play can restore wellbeing, few studies have investigated the means by which restoration occurs. We employed self-determination theory (SDT) to understand how and to what degree play improves wellbeing after a need-frustrating event, and how players understand experiences of competence in play. Sixty-five participants worked at a competence manipulation task prior to playing a competence-satisfying videogame. Competence, affect, and vitality improved during play, and in-game experiences of need frustration were observed to effectively predict post-play negative affect. Post-experiment interviews indicate that videogames are seen to support competence relative to perceived skill, extending our knowledge of how design can support competence and restoration. We demonstrate that play can restore wellbeing, present need frustration as a means to explain negative experiences with interactive systems, and discuss effects of design on competence.

Videogames are complex stimuli, and selecting games that consistently induce a desired player experience (PX) in an experimental setting can be challenging. The number of relatively high-quality games being released each year continues to increase, which makes deriving a shortlist of plausible candidate games from this pool increasingly problematic. Despite this, guidance for structuring and reporting on the game selection process remains limited. This paper therefore proposes two approaches to game selection: the first leverages online videogame databases and existing PX research, and is structured with respect to widely-applicable videogame metadata. The second process applies established game design theory to serve researchers when insufficient connections between desired PX outcomes and recognisable game elements exist. Both methods are accompanied by example reports of their application. The present work aims to assist experimental researchers in selecting videogames likely to meet their needs, while encouraging more rigorous standards of reporting in the field.

People who play video games do so in a range of social contexts: alone, with people they know and don't know, in cooperative and competitive settings. However, little is known about what people enjoy or dislike about these contexts of play, or how to best design games to support player preferences. Using open-ended responses from an online survey (N = 326) and a series of interviews (N = 16) this study shows that the solitary context offers immersive, relaxing, autonomous play, as well as the avoidance of unwanted social interactions. Social play, however, provides competence-enhancing experiences (via competition or teamwork or both) via interactions with others. What was disliked about these contexts indicates where design improvements to both the solitary and social play experiences can be made.

The study examines the relationship of challenge-skill balance and the player experience through evaluation of competence, autonomy, presence, interest/enjoyment, and positive and negative affect states. To manipulate challenge-skill balance, three video game modes -- boredom (low challenge), balance (medium challenge), and overload (high challenge) -- were developed and experimentally tested (n = 45). The study showed that self-reported positive affect, autonomy, presence, and interest/enjoyment differed between the levels. The balance condition generally performed well in terms of positive player experiences, confirming the key role challenge-skill balance plays in designing for optimal play experiences. Interestingly, the study found significantly lower negative affect scores when playing the boredom condition. Greater feelings of competence were also reported for the boredom condition than the balance and overload conditions. Finally, some measures point to overload as a more enjoyable experience than boredom, suggesting possible player preference for challenge > skill imbalance over skill > challenge imbalance. Implications for design and future research are presented.

Video games provide unique interactive player experiences (PX) often categorised into different genres. Prior research has looked at different game genres, but rarely through a PX lens. Especially, PX in the emerging area of massive online battle arena (MOBA) games is not well understood by researchers in the field. We address this knowledge gap by presenting a PX study of different game genres, which we followed up with a second semi-structured interview study about PX in MOBA games. Among the results of our analyses are that games that are likely played with other players, such as MOBA games, stimulate less immersion and presence for players. Additionally, while challenge and frustration are significantly higher in this genre, players get a sense of satisfaction from teamwork, competition and mastery of complex gameplay interactions. Our study is the first to contribute a comprehensive insight into key motivators of MOBA players and how PX in this genre is different from other genres.

The current study sought to identify the impact of whether teammates in a cooperative videogame were controlled by other humans (avatars) or by the game (agents). The impact on player experience was explored through both subjective questionnaire measures and brain wave activity measurement (electroencephalography). Play with human teammates was associated with a greater sense of relatedness, but less competence and flow than play with other computer-controlled teammates. In terms of brain activity, play with human teammates was associated with greater activity in the alpha, theta and beta power bands than play with computer-controlled teammates. Overall, the results suggest that play with human teammates involves greater cognitive activity in terms of 'mentalising' than play with computer-controlled teammates. Additionally, the associations between subjective measures of player experience and brain activity are described. Limitations of the current study are identified and key directions for future research are discussed.

In this paper we present an account of children's interactions with a mobile technology prototype within a school context. The Noise Detectives trial was conducted in a school setting with the aim of better understanding the role of mobile technology as a mediator within science learning activities. Over eighty children, aged between ten and twelve, completed an outdoor data gathering activity using a mobile learning prototype that included paper and digital components. They measured and recorded noise levels at a range of locations throughout the schools. We analyzed the activity to determine how the components of the prototype were integrated into the learning activity, and to identify differences in behavior that resulted from using these components. We present design implications that resulted from observed differences in prototype use and appropriation.

This paper explores the embodiment of agency concepts in tangible user interfaces to create meaningful learning experiences. Current notions of agent-based tangible technology are extended, through the development of low-fidelity prototypes, to include additional flexibility and adaptability. A study involving these prototypes was conducted in a kindergarten environment with nine four-year-old children. Observations of children's interactions with the prototypes produced insightful results which will be used to further refine the product under development.

This paper describes an ethnographic study completed within a kindergarten environment with the view of gaining insights into the development of new technology for young children. Ethnography within HCI has primarily focused on studies of work practices. This project explored the effectiveness of ethnography in supporting the design of playful technology for a constantly changing, creative, and (sometimes) messy environment. The study was effective in drawing out patterns in observations and as such provides useful suggestions for the development of technology for kindergarten settings.

Electronic Blocks are a new programming environment, designed specifically for children aged between three and eight years. As such, the design of the Electronic Block environment is firmly based on principles of developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood education. The Electronic Blocks are physical, stackable blocks that include sensor blocks, action blocks and logic blocks. Evaluation of the Electronic Blocks with both preschool and primary school children shows that the blocks' ease of use and power of engagement have created a compelling tool for the introduction of meaningful technology education in an early childhood setting. The key to the effectiveness of the Electronic Blocks lies in an adherence to theories of development and learning throughout the Electronic Blocks design process.