Children's experiences, understandings and emotional responses to the world can be explored through the way they represent these in their visual art, meaning that their art functions rather like a language.

As with any form of language, the symbols used to communicate can be 'read' and interpreted by those looking at the art.

When looking at children's art it is important to remember that the benefit of art experiences is not in what children produce (or to prepare children for futures as artists), but rather in the play experiences that provide opportunities for children to communicate what they know, think and feel.

In our online world, children have access to a range of digital media which offer different ways of engaging with visual art.

Whilst there have been a number of concerns expressed about the impact of digital media on children, I believe it important that we learn how to harness the best it can offer.

Certainly, the interactive nature of tablets offers children a wide range of innovative and creative learning opportunities to explore, manipulate, pretend and create.

There is now a lot of research demonstrating how children play with digital media. For example, children can explore different concepts such as how to use a digital camera and how to point and move objects on the screen.

They can experiment with problem solving - how to match shapes, how to work through to the end of a maze, how to select a particular action and see the consequences, then experiment with alternative actions.

They develop skills such as the fine motor control to manipulate objects on a touch screen, to manipulate a mouse to point, select and even draw. They develop processing skills such as how to identify patterns both visually and aurally.

They can use different apps to create their own stories and video footage, even using their toys and family members, and in the process, making their own props to support their story.

They can share their stories with other family members, even in these times of limited contact, using other online resources such as various social media platforms. In the process of using thee they learn how to be safe online, and the necessary protocols to ensure safety and privacy.

In the process of engaging with digital media children can combine the usual visual art skills such as drawing, painting, cutting and crafts with various digital media platforms to create new and innovative products.

Interestingly, one study suggested that even in creating digital stories, young children tend to maintain the traditional gender roles: girls tend to choose to identify with princesses and fairies whereas boys tend to identify with characters such as knights, fighters, or non-human characters such as cars.

Despite this, the girls' characters were not passive but took control of situations in their games, getting themselves out of challenging situations and challenging the boys' characters.

Usually, young children tend to play more with peers of the same gender than they do across gender. However, in digital play contexts (for example in sharing an ipad app) the study noted that mixed gender grouping of children were more common.

Sharing an ipad game in a class also created opportunities for less socially-able children to engage with peers and some of these mixed peer groupings, initiated through sharing an ipad game, continued into other activities away from digital media resources.

It is our role to work alongside children in providing access to the various digital opportunities available, to use our wondering questions to support their exploration of these opportunities and to encourage them to create and share their explorations.

We are no longer limited to sticking our children's drawings on our fridges. Now we can save the video footage they have made, the digital stories they have created, the digital music they have composed and performed and share them in our online platforms, or have them cycling through our computers for us to view whenever we want to.

We can suggest interesting ideas to explore in the next digital story or song. We can help extend children's creativity and learning whilst at the same time, providing a balance of other play opportunities so our children are best prepared for their lives in a digital world.