ABSTRACT
This chapter consider how evolving understandings about play in early childhood education led to a new focus on sociocultural descriptions of play over developmental views. It argues that the emphasis led to some of the earliest work seeking to understand digital play by applying existing theories of play to young children's interactions with technologies. The post-developmental perspective challenged accepted universalistic thinking that regarded stage-based and constructivist ideas of children's play as culturally normative. Early childhood research associated with the concept of digital play first appeared to focus on the changing social and cultural context in which young children of the digital age were growing up. Play was variously described as 'freely chosen and non-literal' and in terms of different types, such as role play, pretend play or gross motor play. Early understandings about digital play used constructivist notions of developmentally appropriate practice to define what was considered useful software for young children's learning.
