Scott, Fiona, Chesworth, Liz, Bannister, Cath, Kuria, Daniel, Roscoe, Shabana ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8865-8461 and Wang, Yao (2026) Reimagining the “well” (digitally) literate body: lessons from children's diverse (digital)-literacies-in-the-body with videogames at home. Reading Research Quarterly, 61 (2). ISSN 0034-0553

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Abstract

This article draws on the notion of literacies-in-the-body to reexamine findings from a study on children's (7–12) digital play and well-being, reimagining what is meant by a “well” (digitally) literate body in childhood. Recent literacy scholarship highlights that children feel, perform, and produce literate knowledge across settings—yet in formal education, their bodies are often monitored and corrected according to narrow cultural norms of the (il)literate and (un)well child. Drawing on a recent ecoculturally-informed, home-based study with 20 UK children and their families, we consider children's bodies at (digital) play as a way of thinking otherwise about both (digital) literacy and well-being. A multimodal analytical approach is used, drawing attention to the embodied and contextually situated interactions between children, digital devices and videogame texts. Our analyses illustrate diverse embodied operational, cultural, and critical (digital) literacy practices within family ecologies that support dimensions of well-being, which are both eudaimonic and hedonic in nature. Implications for (digital) literacy education and research methodology are discussed.

Item Type:	Article
Identifier:	10.1002/rrq.70116
Keywords:	children ; digital literacy ; digital play ; ecocultural ; futures ; literacy ; temporality ; videogames ; well-being
Subjects:	Education Computing > Innovation and user experience Education > Teaching and learning > Technology-enhanced learning
Date Deposited:	01 Jul 2026
Dates:	Date Publication status 27 March 2026 Accepted 16 April 2026 Published
School, department or research centre:	School of Medicine and Biosciences The Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory
Keywords:	children ; digital literacy ; digital play ; ecocultural ; futures ; literacy ; temporality ; videogames ; well-being
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/15223

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