Multiculturalism and Creativity in Storytelling - Visual Development of a Digital Manipulative for Young Children

Here, we present the visual development of a digital manipulative that promotes creative storytelling among young children. The tool addresses multiculturalism, by presenting children with story elements from different cultures. We reflected on how to create visual elements that both represent a given culture and foster the children's imagination and creativity. It is key to create eye-catching and imagination-inducing visuals, that can be achieved through an exploratory and iterative process. It is crucial to undertake extensive research to learn about and understand the history and meanings behind each culture, to avoid stereotypes and other representation clichés. Whenever possible, it is important to involve people raised in each culture in the design process, since their contribution is grounded in real life experience and will translate into valuable insights.