by Neil Peirce PhD
In the first part of this 2-part blog post I highlighted the growing market for early childhood games and some of the emerging best-practices for designing such games. In this post I continue by looking at the evidence of learning as a result of these games and the ethical concerns of using them.
Evidence of Effectiveness
The effectiveness of game-based learning for early childhood is both a divisive topic and an under researched area of academic study (Plowman & Stephen 2005). It has been suggested that there are limited instances of appropriate cognitive development games for this age group (Sung et al. 2008) and moreover, there is a lack of theoretical and empirical support for the use of software in general for early childhood learning (Sarama & Clements 2002).
A survey to ascertain the level of research being conducted in this area was conducted covering two prominent journals and conferences on game-based learning. The publications surveyed were:
- Journal: LNCS Transactions on Edutainment (Springer n.d.) (2008-2013), 219 papers
- Journal: Simulation and Gaming (SAGE Journals n.d.) (2005 – early 2014), 369 papers
- Conference: Digital Games and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning (IEEE Computer Society n.d.) (2007,2008,2010,2012), 198 papers
- Conference: European Conference on Game-Based Learning (Academic Conferences and Publishing International n.d.) (2009-2013), 399 papers
The survey found a relatively limited focus on early childhood educational games and supports the findings of (Plowman & Stephen 2005). The suggested reasons for this limited research include poor device ergonomics for this age group, lack of standardised curricula, the limited feedback possible from young children, and challenges of accessing young children for evaluations.
Despite the limited number of papers found, evidence of learning performance was identified in the areas of:
- Phonological Awareness (Segers & Verhoeven 2002; Segers & Verhoeven 2005)
- Differentiation of Thematic and Taxonomic Relationships (Sung et al. 2008)
- Memory Enhancement Strategies (Oyen & Bebko 1996)
- Motor Skills and Coordination (Marco et al. 2009; Marco et al. 2012)
- Mathematical Development (Sarama & Clements 2002; Clements & Sarama 2007; Clements & Sarama 2008; Praet & Desoete 2014)
Evidently where educational games are designed appropriately they can be effective learning tools for this age group. However, these games are largely confined to research activities with few commercial games providing evidence of rigorous evaluation.
Ethical Considerations
The use of technology in general with this age group remains a divisive topic. One of the more publicised concerns it that of rising childhood obesity and the link to sedentary activities. Whereas TV watching can be a predictor for BMI in this age group (Jago et al. 2005), it was not also true for sedentary activity in general. It has been suggested that changes in eating habits and food advertising on TV are potentially the causes as opposed to sedentary activity alone (Vandewater & Cummings 2008).
However the effect of physical actions and inactions during digital game play has implications beyond obesity. An increase in sedentary activity can impact crucial psychomotor development at this age (Alliance for Childhood 2000). Moreover, the use of computers or tablets can result in muscular skeletal injury in this age group after prolonged usage (Straker et al. 2008).
Ethical concerns also exists beyond physiological issues in terms of socio-emotional development. It has been noted that excessive media usage under 3 years has been linked to “problems with self-soothing, sleep, emotional regulation, and attention” (Radesky et al. 2014). Evidently media usage can have negative effects, however, these effects can be largely linked to age inappropriate content. In a study by (Garrison & Christakis 2012) it was shown that such inappropriate content caused sleep disruptions in 3-5 year olds. However, when age-appropriate, educational and prosocial content was substituted the disruptions were reduced, despite viewing times remaining the same.
A final ethical concern remains in the use of games that lack validation as to their educational effectiveness. The reality for this age group is that companies continue to market games as educational despite a lack of standardisation and regulation (Rideout 2014). Although evaluating educational content for this age group is challenging it can be done effectively. The educational effectiveness of Sesame Street (3-6 year olds) is well established by numerous studies (Mares & Pan 2013).
The educational efficacy of games marketed to this age group presents considerable concerns especially where parents are naïvely, or even wilfully, believing the marketing and supposed educational benefits many commercial games extol.
“In the absence of a critical pedagogy for digital game-based learning (DGBL), educators unfamiliar with games or gaming culture are faced with confusing and conflicting agendas which they are ill-equipped to interrogate” (Nolan & McBride 2013)
Summary
The use of digital games for early-childhood has the potential to provide meaningful learning experiences to an age group keenly focused on play-based activities. However, the proliferation of under-evaluated commercial games, and the ethical concerns of media use with this age group presents considerable challenges for their safe and effective use.
This two part post draws on research conducted at the Learnovate Centre.
Further details are available in the free report “Digital Game-based Learning for Early Childhood: A State of the Art Report”.
References
Academic Conferences and Publishing International, European Conference on Game-Based Learning.
Alliance for Childhood, 2000. Fool’s Gold: A Critical Look at Computers in Childhood. Colleen Cordes & Edward Miller, eds., College Park, Maryland: Alliance for Childhood.
Clements, D.H. & Sarama, J., 2007. Effects of a preschool mathematics curriculum: Summative research on the Building Blocks project. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 38(2), pp.136–163.
Clements, D.H. & Sarama, J., 2008. Experimental Evaluation of the Effects of a Research-Based Preschool Mathematics Curriculum. American Educational Research Journal, 45(2), pp.443–494.
Garrison, M.M. & Christakis, D. a, 2012. The impact of a healthy media use intervention on sleep in preschool children. Pediatrics, 130(3), pp.492–9.
IEEE Computer Society, Digital Games and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning.
Jago, R. et al., 2005. BMI from 3-6 y of age is predicted by TV viewing and physical activity, not diet. International journal of obesity (2005), 29(6), pp.557–64.
Marco, J. et al., 2009. Bringing tabletop technologies to kindergarten children. In HCI 2009. pp. 103–111.
Marco, J., Cerezo, E. & Baldassarri, S., 2012. Bringing tabletop technology to all: evaluating a tangible farm game with kindergarten and special needs children. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, pp.1–15.
Mares, M.-L. & Pan, Z., 2013. Effects of Sesame Street: A meta-analysis of children’s learning in 15 countries. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 34(3), pp.140–151.
Nolan, J. & McBride, M., 2013. Beyond gamification: reconceptualizing game-based learning in early childhood environments. Information, Communication & Society, (March 2014), pp.1–15.
Oyen, A.-S. & Bebko, J.M., 1996. The Effects of Computer Games and Lesson Contexts on Children’s Mnemonic Strategies. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 62(2), pp.173–189.
Plowman, L. & Stephen, C., 2005. Children, play, and computers in pre-school education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 36(2), pp.145–157.
Praet, M. & Desoete, A., 2014. Enhancing young children’s arithmetic skills through non-intensive, computerised kindergarten interventions: A randomised controlled study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 39, pp.56–65.
Radesky, J.S. et al., 2014. Infant Self-Regulation and Early Childhood Media Exposure. Pediatrics.
Rideout, V., 2014. Learning at home: Media use in America
SAGE Journals, Simulation and Gaming.
Sarama, J. & Clements, D.H., 2002. Building Blocks for Young Children’s Mathematical Development. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 27(1), pp.93–110.
Segers, E. & Verhoeven, L., 2005. Long-term effects of computer training of phonological awareness in kindergarten. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 21(1), pp.17–27.
Segers, E. & Verhoeven, L., 2002. Multimedia support of early literacy learning. Computers & Education, 39(3), pp.207–221.
Springer, LNCS Transactions on Edutainment.
Straker, L.M. et al., 2008. A comparison of posture and muscle activity during tablet computer, desktop computer and paper use by young children. Ergonomics, 51(4), pp.540–55.
Sung, Y.-T., Chang, K.-E. & Lee, M.-D., 2008. Designing multimedia games for young children’s taxonomic concept development. Computers & Education, 50(3), pp.1037–1051.
Vandewater, E.A. & Cummings, H.M., 2008. Media Use and Childhood Obesity. In S. L. Calvert & B. J. Wilson, eds. The Handbook of Children, Media, and Development. Blackwell Publishing Limited, pp. 355–380.
