Theo Van Leeuwen is Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Southern Denmark, Emeritus Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Honorary Professor at the University of New South Wales, Lancaster University and Cardiff University.

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.

List of Figures
Foreword
1. A Social Semiotic Approach to Toys as Resources for Learning
2. Baby Toys: The Alphabet of Objects
3. Teddy Bears: Affect in the Private and the Public Sphere
4. Small Worlds: The Imaginary Power of Miniatures
5. Barbie: Feminist Icon or Fashion Doll?
6. Building Toys: Elements of Construction and their Meaning
7. War Toys: Masculinity and the Politics of Warfare
8. Digitizing Children's Stories: The Pedagogization of Enchantment
9. The Rules of Games and the Rules of Social Life
10. Conclusion: The Semiosphere of Toys and Games
Appendix: A Guide to the Semiotic Analysis of Objects
References
Index