Intergenerational Making with Young Children

As the Maker Movement has continued to expand, there has been a complementary expansion in the spaces and contexts for engaging in Making. Most pertinent to this paper is the growing body of research on intergenerational making experiences. A hallmark of intergenerational making is its ability to promote both play and collaboration as participants learn from one another. However, the prevailing work on intergenerational making seldom includes children less than seven years old. We build on this body of work by designing and studying an intergenerational making experiences where most of the children were between 2 and 7 years old. Five parents and their family members (ages 2-10) participated in a one-week program on designing games using digital fabrication and household craft materials. Consistent with prior work, and building on designs for intergenerational making experiences, we discuss several interactions that highlight play, joint creation, and connectedness. We consider the benefits and challenges of these types of interactions and present suggestions on the design of intergenerational making experiences that include young children.