Visual Research to Study the Digital Literacy and Multimodal Practices of Romanian Pre-School Children

The purpose of this research note was to highlight opportunities offered by visual research to collect direct empirical data from pre-school children about their digital literacy and multimodal practices. We have also presented some interesting findings obtained from a visual research conducted among 4- to 6-year-old Romanian children. The issued research is part of broader research titled Digital Literacy and Multimodal Practices of Young Children from Romania. The mentioned research was part of the EU COST Action IS1410 involving similar endeavours from over 30 countries (Bakó, 2016: 146). In our visual research, we have analysed 36 drawings belonging to 18 pre-school children. The topics of the drawings were: 'My favourite digital devices' and 'My preferred digital applications'. The content and formal analyses of drawings showed that pre-school children were aware of the digital devices in their environment, but they were not experienced in using various digital applications. Their emotional relationship with digital technology was not strong either. In conclusion, we have found results similar to previous research on the digital practices of young children