The role of objects and materials in the explorations of the “touch-screen” children

It is recognized that the contemporary era is marked by the widespread availability of technologies, a source of radical change that is deeply influencing the modes of learning and knowledge-building of the so-called digital natives. More recently, the children and young people of today have been defined as “the touch-screen generation” due to their constant use of tablets and related applications, which is bringing about further changes in their relationship with culture. This last development in particular seems to have led to a different way of exploring objects and consequently of exploring contents. While we do not wish to pre-empt the results of studies that are currently underway, preliminary observational findings suggest that that children’s approach to contents is increasingly mediated by contact with touch surfaces, which in turn implies a different use of the sensory skills. This represents a new two-dimensional revolution that adds a new perspective to the existing key and multiple vanishing points of the civilization of image: this novel perspective includes a time dimension that is regulated by touch and is more predictable than the exploration of reality. These early observations already prompt us to problematize some key issues, in particular the need to provide opportunities for young children to engage directly with objects and materials: not in opposition to their natural predisposition as members of the touch-screen generation, but to offer them a valuable and complementary mode of exploration and research that can contribute to the development of integrated and complex modes of knowledge-building. In this paper, we analyze observations and video-recordings collected in early childhood services, discussing the value in today’s context of making unstructured materials available for children’s play, with a particular emphasis on those materials defined as “unconventional”, including industrial waste products. The last-mentioned materials are particularly contemporary and therefore suitable for the younger generations, while their undefined nature may help to develop complementary competencies that are less easily drawn out by other means.