Digital toys have the potential to address insufficient physical activity in young children, particularly when designed with tangible interactions that leverage the physicality of objects to encourage embodied movement. However, their effectiveness remains underexplored. This exploratory study observed 20 children aged 3-5 interacting with three digital toys incorporating tangible interactions, to examine how such toys may support physical activity and how specific design features relate to the enactment of movement skills. We used the Activity Classification Model (ACM) and the Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in ChildrenHome (OSRAC-H) to classify activity types and intensity during play. Findings from this small-scale sample indicate that a toy's physical design features are a primary driver of observed physical activity; while digital features, particularly auditory prompts and feedback, provide continuous digital input that may support ongoing physically active interaction. We also reflect on the relative suitability of ACM and OSRAC-H for evaluating physical activity intensity in young children's play with digital toys.

This paper reviewed 66 commercial digital toys for young children's (3 to 5 years old) active play, aiming to explore their features, affordances, and play activities they facilitate. Results show active play is invited predominantly through physical affordances. Digital features can act as prompts, provide feedback, and engage attention. For HCI researchers this paper contributes insights into gaps and design opportunities: 1) many digital toys target broader age groups, and more work is needed to consider young children's developmental abilities and interests in the design; 2) many digital toys do not elicit direct physical/digital responses from children's physical and embodied inputs; and 3) future research can design play sequences through providing age-appropriate affordances, prompts, and feedback that encourage active play, without restricting children's imagination and free play. The outcomes of this study can inform the design of new digital toys for children's active play, to benefit their motor skills development.

Physically active play is essential in early childhood. Yet, many children aged 3 to 5 do not engage in enough physical activity or active play. Consequently, there is a need to increase young children's engagement in active play and understand the factors that enable them to sustain this play. Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI) systems have shown promise to facilitate new opportunities for active play. Few TEIs have been designed to engage children aged 3 to 5 in active play. We ask the question, how can TEIs be better designed to effectively engage young children in active play? This paper begins to answer this question through an exploration into how young children currently engage in active play. We conducted semi-structured interviews with fifteen families and five early childhood teachers. These interviews highlighted activities, contexts, equipment, people, and environmental factors associated with active play engagement. We found that equipment shapes children's activities and provides a context for active play. These findings can inform the design of new and innovative TEIs that facilitate new opportunities to engage young children in active play.

Our research aims to explore the potential that Tangible, Embodied and Embedded Interactive technologies (TEIs) have as a means of engaging young children in physically active play. This paper describes a scoping review of existing research that designs, develops or tests TEIs, where we identify 32 papers that discuss TEIs with the potential to get children active. Our review found that educational objectives are common in the design of TEIs, and that screen-based technologies are still prevalent in tangible and embodied literature. The outcomes of this paper contribute to understanding of the types of TEIs already proposed for young children and will help provide direction for future research.