Affectivity as a form of communication during interactions between parent, child, and TouchCounts

This qualitative study examines communication in family mathematics settings, focusing on how embodied communication is constituted during parent–child interaction with a multitouch technology application, TouchCounts. Moving beyond information–transmission perspectives, the study adopts an embodied and relational approach centered on affectivity—conceptualized as the circulation of attunement, resonance, and intensity of movement and feeling across human and non-human components of the parent–child–TouchCounts assemblage. Drawing on close qualitative analysis of two selected video-recorded excerpts, the study traces how mathematical events unfold moment by moment through bodily action and material engagement, and how affective flow shapes how participants respond to one another and to the digital interface. The findings show that affectivity operates as a constitutive dimension of mathematical communication, shaping how mathematical concepts (e.g., addition toward bigness, making two by V-gesture) are enacted, oriented, sustained, and transformed as lived events. By foregrounding affect and embodiment, this study offers a novel perspective on communication in family mathematics and contributes to broader discussions on mathematical meaning-making in technology-mediated contexts.