|    Login    |    Register

The Semiotics of Toys and Games: The Childhood Artefacts that Introduce Us to the World

(Paperback)

Available Formats


Publishing Details

Full Title:

The Semiotics of Toys and Games: The Childhood Artefacts that Introduce Us to the World

Contributors:

By (Author) Professor Theo van Leeuwen
By (author) Staffan Selander

ISBN:

9781350324930

Publisher:

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Imprint:

Bloomsbury Academic

Publication Date:

19th March 2026

Country:

United Kingdom

Classifications

Readership:

Professional and Scholarly

Fiction/Non-fiction:

Non Fiction

Main Subject:
Other Subjects:

Semiotics / semiology
Childrens / Teenage general interest: Toys

Dewey:

790.133

Physical Properties

Physical Format:

Paperback

Number of Pages:

236

Dimensions:

Width 156mm, Height 234mm

Description

Drawing on extensive research over more than two decades, this book focuses on toys and games as resources for play. It analyses their functionalities as well as their symbolic meaning potentials, exemplifying how they are used in different contexts, such as home and preschool, and how these uses are regulated by parental, pedagogic and marketing discourses.

Building on the work of semioticians such as Barthes, Baudrillard and Krampen, as well as on the social semiotics of Halliday, Hodge, Kress, and others, the book introduces a framework for the multimodal semiotic analysis of physical objects, and the ways in which they are digitally translated into words, images and sounds. It also introduces a multimodal framework with a focus on designs for and in learning. It then applies these frameworks to a range of toys and games for young children including teddy bears, dolls, construction toys, war toys and digital games. Throughout it shows how the toy and games industry contributes to changing the nature of childhood and the way children learn about the world.

Accessibly written, the book will not only be relevant to students and scholars of multimodality and semiotics, but also to early childhood educators and parents of young children.

Reviews

An intriguing look into childrens toys and games and the underlying views and ideologies
that inform them, their use and their rules.

* Arlene Archer, University of Cape Town, South Africa *

Author Bio

Theo van Leeuwen is Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

Staffan Selander is Professor Emeritus in Education/Didactic Science at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, Sweden.

See all

Other titles by Professor Theo van Leeuwen

See all

Other titles from Bloomsbury Publishing PLC