Can I Join in? Understanding children’s participation in play

Based on a design-based research project and ethnographic observations of children’s play in school and after-school activities, the paper analyses how children participate in play. Using participatory sense-making (De Jaegher and Di Paolo, 2007) the main contribution of this paper is to show diversity in the sensory playful participation in children’s play and emphasise the importance of paying attention to the not spoken, sensory of embodied movements that children share in their play. The analysis illustrates that children participate in play through sensory engagement and by taking part in other children’s and adults’ participatory approaches.