Digital literacies among infants and toddlers: Everyday engagement of digital media in the home environment

For many children, their home is where they first encounter digital media technologies. The aim of this study is to investigate how children 0 - 3 years old engage in digital media. We address digital literacies as a sociocultural mindset and a toolbox with attention to skills and comprehensions as well as how children express their agency. The overall research question is: What skills, comprehension, and agency children 0 - 3 years old perform and express when engaged in digital media? We have studied 16 families in Sweden and followed the methodology of "A Day in the Life" developed by Gillen et al. (2007). The study shows that children use technology in their interactions of play in for example video calls, and that dexterity skills are early developed in relation to touch screens. The study also shows that children express agency toward digital media in several ways, for example in taking actions and initiatives. The study concludes that although there is an increased interest in young children's digital media practices there is still need for more studies with focus on the very young children.