Through body and mind. New publication by the WONDRE project from ICSJ explores how children experience fiction

The Journal of Children and Media has published the first academic article from the WONDRE project at the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism (ICSJ). The article, titled “Children’s embodied repertoires when engaging with fiction: Mixed-methods insights from Czechia”, was authored by Markéta Supa, Anežka Kuzmičová, and Martin Nekola.

The research investigated how children aged 9–12 enjoy fictional stories across different practices (e.g. reading, watching, creating) and body positions/situations (e.g. lying down, tucked in/away). Four repertoires, corresponding to four participants groups, emerged:

• story following and backgrounded body, when the focus is so deeply on the story that their awareness of the body fades into the background
• story sidelining and hedonic body, when the emphasis is on the overall experience more than on the story itself
• story owning and responsive body, when children relate the story to themselves and consciously experience it through their bodies
• story making and moving body, when children actively co-create the story, often through whole-body movement

The study illustrates that children enjoy stories in diverse ways and for various reasons. These differences challenge the widespread assumption that all children enjoy fiction equally and in all its forms. It also shows that children’s experiences of stories are influenced to varying degrees by societal expectations and ideas about reading and children’s media use.

The article is published in Open Access and is freely available to all readers.

 For more information about the project, visit WONDRE website.