Using The Media Arts To Digitally Support Young Children's Family And Cultural Narratives

Engagement in media arts and digital technology can contribute to the development of young children's working theories, stories and understandings of their world. Children in many Australian families experience frequent and stressful transitions as parents work away in roles in mining, transport and military occupations. Research has shown a lack of resources for young children, their parents, educators and family workers to support these children, especially for those in defence force families. We use Sims' (2011) rights-based framework, adapted from Maslow's (1943) hierarchy of needs, as a framework to identify how these experiences impact on children. In particular we argue this lifestyle undermines children's rights "to love, affection, care, attention, closeness to another person" and their rights "to feel valued and worthy, to be valued by others, to be accepted, appreciated and have status" (Sims, 2011, p. 123) from the parent who is away. Previous research has revealed parents and educators of young children feel unsupported due to the lack of age and culturally appropriate early childhood resources to assist their children. Defence families being 'absent' in early childhood (EC) storybooks, apps and eBooks makes it difficult for the children and families to normalise their experiences, connect with characters in an emotionally safe way, thereby building capacity for emotional resilience and belonging within the community. This paper focuses on how the media arts were used to transform an eStorybook from research data into a digital app. The project aimed to improve children's skills in the media arts, enhancing their understandings of cultural and family narratives within their cultural group and providing much needed age and culturally appropriate resources.