Brave New GES World:A Systematic Literature Review of Gestures and Referents in Gesture Elicitation Studies

How to determine highly effective and intuitive gesture sets for interactive systems tailored to end users’ preferences? A substantial body of knowledge is available on this topic, among which gesture elicitation studies stand out distinctively. In these studies, end users are invited to propose gestures for specific referents, which are the functions to control for an interactive system. The vast majority of gesture elicitation studies conclude with a consensus gesture set identified following a process of consensus or agreement analysis. However, the information about specific gesture sets determined for specific applications is scattered across a wide landscape of disconnected scientific publications, which poses challenges to researchers and practitioners to effectively harness this body of knowledge. To address this challenge, we conducted a systematic literature review and examined a corpus of N=267 studies encompassing a total of 187, 265 gestures elicited from 6, 659 participants for 4, 106 referents. To understand similarities in users’ gesture preferences within this extensive dataset, we analyzed a sample of 2, 304 gestures extracted from the studies identified in our literature review. Our approach consisted of (i) identifying the context of use represented by end users, devices, platforms, and gesture sensing technology, (ii) categorizing the referents, (iii) classifying the gestures elicited for those referents, and (iv) cataloging the gestures based on their representation and implementation modalities. Drawing from the findings of this review, we propose guidelines for conducting future end-user gesture elicitation studies

Touch gesture performed by children under 3 years old when drawing and coloring on a tablet

Children under 3 are enthusiastic users of mobile devices and have the ability to emulate a number of the gestures adults use on touch screens, according to the literature on Child-Computer Interaction (CCI). Nevertheless, relatively few studies have focused on the spontaneous interaction of children with screens. The objective of this empirical research is to study unstructured interactions of children under 3 with two apps that permit free drawing and coloring. Observation includes the first gesture used for interaction and the use of on-screen tools (e.g. color palette). Twenty-one participants aged 14 to 33 months (average of 24 months) were recorded playing with free drawing and coloring apps on a tablet using a non-invasive method in a natural context (two nursery schools, one in London and one in Barcelona). Analysis of the data gathered showed that children under 3 adapt their gestures to the content of the apps and suggests that the use of tools may begin from 24 months. Based on those results, the content of an additional 32 apps for drawing and coloring aimed at children from zero, one or two years old were then reviewed. The analysis highlighted the need for more studies on the interaction of young children with apps to foster the development of interactive resources appropriate to a child's age and development

Alternative Receptive Language Assessment Modalities and Stimuli for Children with ASD who are Minimally Verbal

There are very few receptive language measures that are appropriate for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who have minimal verbal skills. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate and compare alternative modalities and stimuli used to measure receptive language skills in children with ASD who are minimally verbal. This study systematically compared participants' outcomes on three different receptive language assessment conditions: a picture-based standardized assessment, a touchscreen assessment, and an assessment that used real-object stimuli. A secondary aim of this study was to examine how individual characteristics such as cognition, maladaptive behavior, autism symptomology, and gesture use impact performance on assessment conditions. A tertiary aim involved the use of an intermodal preferential looking paradigm (IPLP) to determine whether eye gaze data may provide additional, implicit information about word comprehension for children with ASD. Twenty-seven students between the ages of 3 and 12 who had minimal verbal skills and a diagnosis of ASD participated in this study. Results from a crossed-random effects model showed that participants’ scores in the real-object assessment condition were significantly higher than in the standardized condition, and marginally higher than scores in the touchscreen assessment. Together, cognition and fine motor skills accounted for 44% of the variance in participants’ scores. IPLP data revealed that participants spent more time looking at target stimuli rather than foil stimuli in 36% of no-response trials. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed

Competing voices: Dialogic perspectives on Chinese children’s use of touch screen devices in a New Zealand early childhood education setting

Internationally, preschool children’s use of touch screen devices is increasingly discussed from the perspectives of teachers and or caregivers. However, there is little discussion of this topic from a cross-cultural perspective. Furthermore, children’s own voices on their touch screen experiences are missing in the discourse. This study considers Chinese immigrant preschool children’s experiences of touch screen devices in a New Zealand Early Childhood Education (ECE) setting, aiming to discern the competing Voices of New Zealand ECE teachers, Chinese immigrant caregivers and children themselves. To achieve this aim, initially I sought to understand everyday touch screen use from the perspectives of New Zealand ECE teachers and Chinese immigrant caregivers, then explore children’s voices in this discussion by videoing their engagement with touch screens, and finally explore a possible new layer of competing Voices between adults and children. I set out to interrogate touch screen use by young learners in a social and aesthetic way by applying Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogic theory to explore the potential for competing voices around preschool children’s touch screen use. I used the genre as my unit of analysis as it allowed me to examine voices, not only through utterances but also gestural expressions across different spaces. I used Heteroglossia as a central framework for analysis because it enabled me to understand multiple voices in social interaction. A visual method was used to collect the data because this method enabled me to see multiple forms of children’s voices in addition to their utterances, and to identify further competing voices through children’s employment of various genres when using touch screens across ECE centre and home contexts. The Voice of conditional support and the Voice of opposition or reluctance were identified as competing Voices within and across New Zealand ECE teachers, and within and across Chinese caregivers. The findings highlight that the Voices of teachers and caregivers in my study are not necessarily in competition with each other, but are instead in competition within and across each group. Six genres were recognised during children’s touch screen use: the adult-led learning genre, the compliance genre, the invisible speaker genre, the child-led learning genre, the resistance genre and the whisper genre. Through these genres, children’s Outside-in Voice and Inside-out Voice were identified according to the source of voices. The Outside-in Voice reflects the influence of adults’ voices on the child, while the Inside-out Voice illustrates the child’s agency in expressing their inner voices. Building on the tension within children’s Voices, a new layer of competing Voices between adults and children was discerned: the Voice of adult power and the Voice of child agency. My findings have implications for children, ECE teachers, caregivers and policymakers. Children could be supported to express their voices on issues that affect their lives and to spend more time on free play. Implications for ECE teachers are that teachers need to be invited and given support to understand the complexity of children’s voices through genres. Teachers need to be helped to appreciate that there are benefits of standing back and giving children space to be creative and learn collaboratively and or independently. Caregivers could be encouraged to relax some of their authority, to listen to children’s voices and to include children’s voices in decision-making on issues that affect them. Caregivers could also consider the conditions they place around their child’s touch screen use such as time limit and the extent of scaffolding. Policymakers would be advised to provide teachers with professional learning and development with regard to how to scaffold children’s touch screen use and digital play into play-based learning. Areas for research include further investigation of the genres children employ during touch screen use and the use of interpretations other than Bakhtinian dialogism to do this. Research could focus on the touch screen learning experiences of a wider group of children, including children who are immigrants and children of different ages in different cultural contexts

The third voice: Do enhanced e-books enhance the benefits of shared story reading with preschoolers?

This study from which this paper draws examined the benefits of reading plain e-books (with parental instruction) compared to enhanced e-books (with limited parental direction) with 3- to 5-year-old children. Interaction was measured through parent-child verbal communication and eye contact. Engagement was measured through time spent visually focused on the story, and retention was measured through open-ended story event recall questions and multiple-choice story vocabulary questions. There were no differences between the enhanced and plain e-book conditions in children’s qualitative engagement with the story, or in the amounts of vocabulary or story events they retained. While enhanced e-books resulted in more time spent gazing at the device, parents and children were significantly more interactive when reading plain e-books. These findings suggest that while both plain and enhanced e-books are effective in aiding children’s retention of words and story events, plain e-books read by a caregiver are better at promoting meaningful conversation

Using a smart device:the roles of mobile application usage on toddlers and pre-schoolers

Abstract. Technology has found its way into the hands of young children propelling various researchers to carry out a series of research on the impact which the usage is having on the young children. In the available studies concerning the young children on the effect of technology and mobile application, most researchers have focused either attention on the advantages or the disadvantages. This research work is not focusing on the advantages and disadvantages but instead looking through the two research questions, which are 1. What role do the use of smart devices and mobile apps play in the lives of toddlers and preschoolers? 2. Should toddlers and preschoolers be allowed to use a smart device? to address the role of mobile technology and its’ application on young children. The research methodology used in this work is the qualitative research methods implemented by carrying out a survey. The survey is used to carry out data collection from 20 parents in-order to create a framework for the basis of the result driven. The findings made confirms that smart device and the usage of mobile apps is playing a big role on the young children, but parents are obligated to provide protection and control to mitigate the negative effects could bring on the users. Mobile application for young children has come to stay and will continue to grow; parents should take note on how their kids use the device and for what purpose it used. Likewise, app developers should develop a more suitable app for young children. Also, regulatory bodies in charge of applications developed for young children should regulate what sort of advert pops-up in applications developed for young childre

Kindertivity: Usability and Communicability Strategies for Interactive Surfaces and Pre-Kindergarten Children

Tesis por compendio[ES] La tecnología multi-táctil se ha convertido en una de las más emergentes tras experimentar un enorme crecimiento desde sus pasos iniciales en los años ochenta hasta su amplia aceptación y uso en la actualidad. Por una parte, la tecnología multi-táctil se basa en el estilo de interacción de manipulación directa el cual proporciona a los usuarios la ventaja de ver los objetos y las acciones de interés, sustituir comandos escritos por acciones de señalado y, además, permite la realización de acciones rápidas, reversibles e incrementales evitando el uso de instrucciones complejas. Por otra parte, diversos trabajos han evaluado las virtudes derivadas de utilizar conjuntamente la manipulación directa con el toque directo mostrando que es posible evitar los problemas inherentes a otras técnicas de interacción como el ratón y el teclado. Por lo tanto, aprovechando la interacción natural e intuitiva proporcionada por la tecnología multi-táctil, ésta parece una forma ideal para dar soporte a la creación de escenarios educativos dirigidos a niños en edad preescolar. Sin embargo, a pesar de la existencia de diversos estudios que evalúan la idoneidad de utilizar el estilo de interacción de manipulación directa, existe una falta de trabajos abordando el uso dispositivos basados en superficies táctiles con niños de una temprana edad. Asimismo, en la actualidad existe una creciente tendencia a diseñar aplicaciones educativas y lúdicas dirigidas a niños en edad preescolar utilizando dispositivos multi-táctiles como los teléfonos inteligentes o las tabletas. Además, diversos informes señalan que los niños son usuarios frecuentes de este tipo de dispositivos y los utilizan incluso antes de ser capaces de hablar. Sin embargo, a pesar de este crecimiento en el uso de la tecnología multi-táctil y su aparente idoneidad para ser utilizado en el desarrollo de aplicaciones educativas para niños en edad preescolar, no existen unas interacciones universales y estandarizadas para preescolares a la hora de utilizar dispositivos táctiles ya que habitualmente sólo se utilizan dos gestos básicos (básicamente, el toque con un dedo para seleccionar y el arrastre con un dedo para el movimiento). Por lo tanto, existe una clara necesidad de llevar a cabo estudios empíricos para contribuir y avanzar en el diseño de aplicaciones que den un soporte adecuado y encaje con las habilidades de los niños en su temprano desarrollo. Por tanto, esta tesis propone, diseña y evalúa diversas estrategias de usabilidad y comunicabilidad adaptadas a los niños en edad preescolar para establecer la base para el diseño y desarrollo de futuras aplicaciones basadas en dispositivos táctiles dirigidas a preescolares. Estas estrategias llevarán a la adecuada definición de guías de diseño que permitirán a los niños aprovechar al máximo la tecnología multi-táctil, harán posible el desarrollo de nuevas y atractivas aplicaciones y, eventualmente, también podrán ayudar al desarrollo cognitivo y motor de los niños.[CA] La tecnologia multi-tàctil s'ha convertit en una de les més emergents després d'experimentar un enorme creixement des dels seus passos inicials als anys vuitanta fins l'actualitat on es àmpliament acceptada i utilitzada. D'una banda, la tecnologia multi-tàctil es basa en l'estil d'interacció de manipulació directa, el qual proporciona als usuaris l'avantatge de veure els objectes i les accions d'interès, substituir comandos escrits per accions d'assenyalament i, a més, permet la realització d'accions, ràpides, reversibles i incrementals evitant l'ús d'instruccions complexes. D'altra banda, diversos treballs han avaluat les virtuts derivades d'utilitzar conjuntament la manipulació directa amb el toc directe mostrant que és possible evitar els problemes inherents a altres tècniques d'interacció com el ratolí i el teclat. Per tant, aprofitant la interacció natural i intuïtiva proporcionada per la tecnologia multi-tàctil, aquesta sembla una forma ideal per donar suport a la creació d'escenaris educatius per a xiquets en edat preescolar. No obstant això, malgrat l'existència de diversos estudis que avaluen la idoneïtat d'utilitzar l'estil d'interacció de manipulació directa, existeix una manca de treballs abordant l'ús de dispositius basats en superfícies tàctils amb xiquets d'edat primerenca. Així mateix, en l'actualitat existeix una creixent tendència a dissenyar aplicacions educatives i lúdiques dirigides a xiquets en edat preescolar utilitzant dispositius tàctils com els telèfons intel¿ligents o les tauletes. A més, diversos informes assenyalen que els xiquets són usuaris freqüents d'aquests tipus de dispositius i els utilitzen fins i tot abans de ser capaços de parlar. Malgrat aquest creixement en l'ús de la tecnologia multi-tàctil i la seua aparent idoneïtat per a ser utilitzada en el desenvolupament d'aplicacions educatives per a xiquets en edat preescolar, no existeixen unes interaccions universals i estandarditzades per a preescolars a l'hora d'utilitzar dispositius tàctils ja que habitualment només s'utilitzen dos gestos bàsics (bàsicament, el toc amb un dit per a seleccionar i l'arrossegament amb un dit per al moviment). Per tant, hi ha una clara necessitat de dur a terme estudis empírics per a contribuir i avançar en el disseny d'aplicacions que donen un suport adequat i s'ajusten amb les habilitats dels xiquets en el seu primerenc desenvolupament. Per tant, la tesi proposa, dissenya i avalua diverses estratègies de usabilitat i comunicabilitat adaptades als xiquets en edat preescolar per tal d'establir la base per al disseny i desenvolupament de futures aplicacions basades en dispositius tàctils dirigides a preescolars. Aquestes estratègies portaran a l'adequada definició de guies de disseny que permetran als xiquets aprofitar al màxim la tecnologia multi-tàctil, faran possible el desenvolupament de noves i atractives aplicacions i, eventualment, podran també ajudar al desenvolupament cognitiu i motor dels xiquets.[EN] Multi-touch technology has become one of the most emergent technologies and has had an enormous growth since its initial steps in the eighties to be widespread accepted and used in the present. On the one hand, multi-touch technology relies on the direct manipulation interaction style which gives users the advantage to view the objects and actions of interest, replace typed commands by pointing actions and to perform rapid, reversible and incremental actions avoiding using complex instructions. On the other hand, several works have evaluated the virtues when joining direct manipulation with direct-touching showing that it solves the problems inherent in other interaction devices, such as those involving mouse or keyboard. Hence, taking advantage of the intuitive and natural interaction provided by multi-touch technology it seems an ideal way to support educational scenarios targeted to kindergarten children. Although several works have assessed the suitability of using the direct manipulation style with children, there is a lack of works addressing the use of touchscreen devices by this specific type of users. Moreover, there is a growing trend of designing educational and playful applications targeted to kindergarten children based on touchscreen devices such as smartphones and tablets. In addition, several reports point out that children use touchscreen devices even before they are able to speak and they are frequent users of devices such as smartphones and tablets. However, despite this growth in the use of multi-touch technology by children and its apparent suitability to be used to develop applications targeted to young children, there is a lack of standardized and universally accepted interactions for young children when using touchscreen devices since only two basic gestures are commonly used (basically, consisting of only one-finger touch for selection and one-finger drag for movement). Hence, there is a need of carrying out empirical studies to help and advance in the design of applications that adequately support and fit with children's development and skills. Therefore, this thesis proposes, designs and evaluates several usability and communicability strategies tailored to children in their early development stage to establish the design and development of future applications targeted to kindergarten children. These strategies will lead to define appropriate design strategies that enable infants to take full advantage of multi-touch technology, would make it possible to develop attractive new applications and, eventually, could also aid children's cognitive and motor development.Nácher Soler, VE. (2019). Kindertivity: Usability and Communicability Strategies for Interactive Surfaces and Pre-Kindergarten Children [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/116833TESISCompendi

Embodied approaches to learning programming

This thesis explores observable representations of embodied learning, such as physicality, gestures and the use of conceptual metaphors among students in primary computing education. To understand the influence of more physically interactive forms of interface, I compared the use of two user interfaces – a Tangible User Interface (TUI) and Graphical User Interface (GUI) – to foster programming skills in primary school students aged between six and seven. The first phase of this thesis, Studies 1 and 2, adopted a between-subjects design to examine the impact of interface type on several variables including enjoyment, attitudes, learning outcomes, and frequency of gestures, as well as the effect of gender on each variable. Both Study 1 and 2 examined the relationship between student gestures and learning outcomes. Study 1 examined the effect of physicality as an input by asking students to use a block-based programming environment to control a physical robot (PR) to solve six activities (two complex, four simple) where the students used either a TUI-PR or a GUI-PR. The use of a GUI-PR was associated with improved learning outcomes, but the TUI-PR led to a greater attitudinal improvement toward computing. No difference was identified in the number of gestures used by participants in the TUI-PR and GUI-PR groups, but a statistically significant difference was identified between the mean learning gains in programming of high-frequency gesturers and low-frequency gesturers, with the top quartile showing significantly greater learning gains. Study 2 further examined the effect of physicality as both an input and an output by comparing two block-based programming environments: first, a TUI-PR consisting of physical, hand-manipulated blocks to control a physical robot; and second, a GUI-SR, which involve using touchscreen-operable programming blocks to control an on-screen robot (SR) to solve four simple activities. No difference was observed between the TUI-PR and GUI-PR in terms of learning outcomes, but the GUI-PR was associated with attitudinal improvement toward computing. Additionally, no difference was observed in the number of gestures used by participants in the TUI-PR and GUI-SR groups and no relationship was identified between the frequency of gestures and learning gains. In both studies, no difference was found in terms of the level of enjoyment or by gender across all the measures. The results also demonstrated that children used a range of gestures to represent the concept of iteration including pointing, literal representational gestures and metaphorical representational gestures. In Study 3, we addressed a gap in the current theoretical understanding of computing education by drawing on embodied cognition theory. Using methodological tools from cognitive linguistics and gesture research, an analysis of how primary school students used spontaneous co-speech gestures when responding to interview questions and describing programming concepts was conducted. The findings show representational patterns in these gestures, thereby suggesting the potential of this methodological approach to provide a deeper understanding of the nature of learners’ cognition in the domain of computing education. This work that contributes to two main areas: first, the field of interaction design, particularly relating to the importance of physicality in programming environments for children; and second, current understandings of the importance of gestures and conceptual metaphors in CS education in primary school. This thesis presents an in-depth comparison of the use of a TUI and GUI to teach programming skills to primary school students. In particular, the findings indicate that a GUI-SR is suitable for children’s learning and is associated with greater attitudinal improvement than a TUI. This thesis also investigated the potential relationship between increased embodiment in the interface and output device (e.g., physicality) and increased use of embodied representations (e.g., gestures) that showed no relationship across Studies 1 and 2. This research describes children’s use of spontaneous gestures when solving programming problems and explaining programming concepts. Additionally, regarding the use of spontaneous gestures, this research demonstrates how investigating children’s gestures may help to characterise children’s conceptions in primary computing, possibly allowing the identification of misconceptions and assisting the identification of productive educational strategies. This research has also provided evidence indicating that children use spontaneous hand gestures to demonstrate abstract computational concepts, even in the absence of relevant stimuli (i.e., written code); this reflects how gestures may indicate the embodiment of the children’s computing notions. Furthermore, this research presents tentative evidence of cultural influences on embodied conceptualisations. The findings suggest that the direction of a culture’s written language (i.e., right-to-left or left-to-right) influences the direction and use of conceptual metaphors in CS. Finally, this research identified a positive relationship between the mean learning gains of high-frequency gesturers and low-frequency gesturers on tasks with varying problem difficulties. This work represents the first step toward understanding children’s embodied descriptions of programming and the potential role of gestures in supporting their learning. This was a worthwhile area of research because, although the analysis of children’s gestures has already proven valuable in illuminating knowledge acquisition and conceptual development in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields such as mathematics itself, the area of computing education is currently underexplored

TinkRBooks : tinkerable story elements for emergent literacy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-102).Printed words are an abstract representation of concepts. Today parents teach children how to read by demonstrating how text is related to imagery. I present textual tinkerability, an idea for demonstrating reading by using multisensory gestures to expose and alter the text-graphic relationship within the story. Tinkerability allows readers to physically express words as they read, giving them some degree of control over the narrative. Two interactive storybooks called TinkRBooks demonstrate how tinkerability supports parent-child emergent literacy. Design guidelines were developed to showcase how tinkerability can be used for creating educationally meaningful interactivity. TinkRBooks allows parents to gesturally modify and discuss how text relates to concepts within a narrative. TinkRBooks allows children to actively explore the abstract relationship between printed words and their meanings, even before this relationship is properly understood. This ability to explore textual representation changes the way parents read to their children during emergent literacy. When using a TinkRBook, parents spend more time talking, discussing more comprehensive ideas with their children and provoking more meta dialogue than with regular books. TinkRBook also encourages children to drive their reading inquiry, by actively demonstrating the concepts relating to vocabulary schema within the narrative. The result is a new story sharing experience that benefits both parents and children by allowing them to understand how the choice of words impacts the story experience.by Angela Chang.Ph.D

Young children’s grounding of mathematical thinking in sensory-motor experiences

Dissertation articles have been removed from the digital version, due to copyright issues. They can be read in the printed edition.Hovedmålet med avhandling min er å utvikle kunnskap om små barns forankring av matematisk tenkning i sensoriske-motoriske erfaringer, mens et delmål er å øke forståelsen for hvordan utendørs design kan støtte slike erfaringer. To intervensjoner som engasjerte 27 barn i alderen 3 til 5 år ble gjennomført som et samarbeid mellom 4 barnehagelærere i to barnehager og to forskere. Intervensjonene la grunnlaget for tre fokusstudier der det empiriske materialet består av video av barna i individuelle etter-tester. Teorien kroppslig situert kognisjon (Embodied Cognition) er brukt i analysen der en detaljert vurdering av koherens mellom oppgave adferd og det matematiske målområdet i det respektive delstudiet dannet grunnlag for sammenlikning og en fler-kasus dybdeanalyse av karakteristikker innenfor og på tvers av identifiserte mønstre for kroppslig situering av matematisk tenking. Tre forskjellige aspekter ble fokusert på: Karteristiske trekk ved delmengde-kjenneres (dvs. barn som ikke viser ferdigheter i bruk av telling for å produsere små mengder) evner til å behandle små mengder som helheter gjennom tale og kroppslig interaksjon i en stor sirkel med 50 merker (fokus studie 1); barnas evner til å gjenskape symmetrisk strukturerte kroppslige erfaringer med tallmengder for å støtte additive resonnement, og barnas evner til kroppslig modellering av tellebasert addisjon (fokus studie 3). Resultatene viste karakteristiske og divergerende trekk ved delmengde-kjenneres kroppslig situering av kardinaltallbegrepet som også omfattet produksjon av små mengder over målt begrepsnivå, og videre hvordan sensoriske-motoriske erfaringer kan støtte telle-basert addisjon og resonnement rundt del-helhet relasjoner. Avhandlingen gir et bidrag til forskningsområdet knyttet til tidlig strukturbasert kroppslig læring i matematikk, og spesielt gjennom funn som viser karakteristikker i barns situering, avlastning og koherens av matematisk tenkning i bevegelse og motorisk interaksjon. Uventede funn var inkludering av estetiske, rytmiske og sammensatte bevegelsesmønstre i den kroppsbaserte matematiske tenkningen. I lys av det kroppslige situerte perspektivet bør resultatene oppmuntre til design av utendørs aktiviteter som involverer bevegelse og rytme i den tidlige læringen av matematikk. For å konkludere understreker avhandlingen rollen som kroppslig bevegelse og fysisk interaksjon med romlige strukturer kan utgjøre i små barns matematiske tenkning.ABSTRACT: The main objective of my dissertation is to develop knowledge about young children’s grounding of mathematical thinking in sensory-motor experiences while a sub-goal is to increase the understanding of how outdoor embodied designs can facilitate such experiences. Two embodied training programmes engaging 27 children aged 3 to 5 years were conducted as a collaboration between four kindergarten teachers in two kindergartens and two researchers. These interventions led to three focal studies, where the empirical material consists of video footage of the children in individual post-tests. The data are analysed through the framework of Embodied Cognition, involving detailed attention to each child’s cohering of task behaviour with the mathematical targeting domain addressed in the respective focal study, followed by a cross-case comparison and a multi-case analysis across and within the identified patterns of grounding of mathematical thinking in bodily action. Three different aspects were focused on: Characteristic features of subset-knowers’ (i.e., children unable to use counting for exact numbering) abilities in establishing congruence between the idea of cardinality and verbalised body-spatial mapping of small sets (focal study 1); children’s re-enactment of canonical structured experiences of numerosity in reasoning about additive compositions (focal study 2) and children’s congruency in the physical grounding of counting based addition (focal study 3). The results showed recurring and deviating patterns of subset-knowers’ grounding of the idea of cardinality in bodily production of small sets that also exceeded their knower-level, and the findings showed how sensory-motor action might concur with counting-based addition and support reasoning about additive compositions. Unexpected findings comprise the inclusion of expressive body movements (e.g., rotation, rhythm, force, and tempo) in the situating of mathematical thinking. The dissertation study contributes to the field of educational research on early structured-based bodily learning of mathematics as it revealed characteristics of young children’s situating, off-loading and cohering of mathematical thinking in full-body interaction. In light of the embodied perspective, this should encourage the design of activities outdoors that involve movement and rhythm in the early learning of mathematics. In conclusion, this dissertation underlines the role that bodily movement and physical interaction with spatial structures can play in young children’s mathematical thinking