Digital Game-based Learning for Early
Childhood
Neil Peirce
IGBL, 6th June 2013
Partnering industry with research
to pioneer learning innovation

www.learnovatecentre.org
Develop breakthrough
research for learning
innovation by
partnering industry
with leading research
groups in Ireland.
Learnovate Centre - Mission

www.learnovatecentre.org
Trinity College
Dublin
University College
Dublin
Waterford Institute
of Technology
NUI Galway
Academia
23 Industry
partners trading
within Ireland
Industry-Led Collaboration
Industry

www.learnovatecentre.org
Current Industry Partners

www.learnovatecentre.org
Shared Research Agenda
• Augmented Reality
• Intelligent Agents
• Games & Virtual Worlds
• Assessment Methods
• Performance Analytics
• Return on Investment
• Intelligent Content
Delivery
• Location-based
Learning
• Hands-on Learning
• Interoperability
• Social Learning
• Search
• Personalisation
Social &
Informal
Learning
Mobile &
Collaborative
Learning
Metrics &
Assessment
Immersive
Learning

www.learnovatecentre.org
Overview
www.learnovatecentre.org
• Introduction
• The Design of Games for Early
Childhood
• Appropriate Gaming Strategies
• Underpinning Pedagogies
• Evidence of Learning Effectiveness
• Ethical Considerations

www.learnovatecentre.org
Introduction
• Early Childhood
(3-6 year olds)
• Unique
challenges
• Increasing
relevance
– Tablet computers
(Sharp, 2002)

www.learnovatecentre.org
The Pedagogy and Design of
Games
• Play vs. Games
– Goals
– Rules
• Key challenge:
–Developmental Appropriateness

www.learnovatecentre.org
Play in Early Childhood
• Adult play
– Entertainment, enjoyment, escapism, fitness, etc.
• Early childhood play(NCCA, 2004)
– Develop imagination and creativity
– Develop an ability to manage emotions
– Develop as thinkers
– Develop physically
– Develop language
– Learn to use symbols
• Including literary and numerical systems
– Develop social skills, and to develop morally and
spiritually

www.learnovatecentre.org
Taxonomy of Play
(Hutt et al., 1989)

www.learnovatecentre.org
Games
• “A game is a system in which players engage
in an , defined by , that
results in a .”
(Salen & Zimmerman, 2003)
• Developmental Appropriateness
– Cognitive
– Psychomotor
– Socio-emotional
– Psychosexual

www.learnovatecentre.org
Cognitive Development (Piaget)
(Gage & Berliner, 1998)

www.learnovatecentre.org
Cognitive Development
• Preoperational sub-stage
– Use language to help develop concepts
– Egocentric view of the world
– Need extensive experience to understand complex relational
terms
– Can classify objects based on a single evident feature, e.g.
colour, material
– There is difficulty with understanding multi-dimensional
differences, e.g. green circles and green triangles are not the
same just because they are green
– They are able to collect items based on a criterion (even a
shifting one)
– They can arrange objects in a series yet cannot draw
inferences between non-adjacent objects
– They have limited transitive inference, e.g. if A > B and B >
C then A > C

www.learnovatecentre.org
Cognitive Development
• Intuitive sub-stage
– Ability to form classes or categories of objects (not
necessarily aware of them)
– Understand logical relationships of increasing complexity
– Able to work with the idea of a number
– By age 7 they are able to react to symbol systems and to
overcome their intuitive impressions
– The principle of conservation is understood
– Increased ability to express thoughts and ideas verbally
– Imagination enables imitation of actions and symbols
– There is a transition from self-satisfying behaviour to
fundamental socialised behaviours

www.learnovatecentre.org
Example Games
Team Umizoomi Math: Zoom into Numbers
by MTV Networks
Count Me To Sheep by Sesame Workshop
Checkout Cookie by Sesame Workshop
Letter Factory Game by LeapFrog Enterprises

www.learnovatecentre.org
Psychomotor Development
Psychomotor Developmental Stages
(Gallahue & Ozmun, 2006)
• Initially achieved largely through maturation
– Fully attained through opportunities for practice,
encouragement, and instruction

www.learnovatecentre.org
Example Games
The Tiggly Game

www.learnovatecentre.org
Socio-emotional Development
• Children learn through action and interaction with others
• Parents/guardians play a key role in supporting their children’s early
learning
• Effective communication between parents and child-
minders/practitioners enhances children’s learning
• The play environment—whether outdoor or indoor—warrants careful
consideration to support both relationships and play as key contexts for
learning
Erikson's Stages of Personality (Erikson, 1980)

www.learnovatecentre.org
Example Games
The Scout and Friends...and You! Game by
LeapFrog Enterprises

www.learnovatecentre.org
Psychosexual Development
• Sigmund Freud
– Phallic stage / reproductive issues
– Body / Gender awareness
• Oedipus complex among boys
– Resolved through self-exploration and input
from parents
– Limited relevance to digital game-based
learning

www.learnovatecentre.org
Developmental
Stages and Age
• Many influencing factors
• Great diversity within 3-
6 year olds

www.learnovatecentre.org
Appropriate Gaming Strategies
• Simple interfaces
• Limited symbols requiring interpretation (no text)
• A role for the parent in games
• Language to discuss problems
• Each child develops at their own pace
• Egocentric nature limits alternate perspectives
• Competition has limited relevance
• Fine-motor skills still developing
• Short periods of play necessary (eye development)
• Body, directional, temporal, spatial awareness still developing
• Many more in the report…

www.learnovatecentre.org
Underpinning Pedagogies

www.learnovatecentre.org
Evidence of Learning Effectiveness
• Limited research exists for this age group
• SoA Survey
– 4 leading journals and conferences
– 995 papers surveyed
– 3% (16 papers) directly relevant to early childhood learning
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Trans. on
Edutainment
Sim and
Gaming
ECGBL DIGITEL Overall
Percentageofpapersbysector
Publication Source
Breakdown of sector-specific research papers
(excl. theoretical and technical papers) Other
Military
Corporate
Fourth Level
Third Level
Secondary
Primary
Early
Childhood

www.learnovatecentre.org
Evidence of Learning Effectiveness
• Reasons for limited publications

www.learnovatecentre.org
Evidence of Learning Effectiveness
• Phonological
Awareness
– Benefits to
reading and
writing skills in
primary school
Representation of the Phonological Structure
of the Word ‘basket’. (Gillon, 2004)

www.learnovatecentre.org
Evidence of Learning Effectiveness
• Differentiation of Thematic and Taxonomic
Relationships
Example Game for Hierarchical Taxonomic
Classification (Sung et al., 2008)
Progressive Stages of Taxonomic Learning

www.learnovatecentre.org
Evidence of Learning Effectiveness
• Memory Enhancement
Strategies
– (Oyen & Bebko, 1996)
• Motor Skills and Coordination
– Tangible Toys (Marco et al., 2009)
• Mathematical Development
– Spatial and geometric competencies and
concepts
– Numeric and quantitative concepts
– (Sarama & Clements, 2004)

www.learnovatecentre.org
Ethical Considerations
• Cognitive
– Limited evidence of learning effectiveness
• Psychomotor
– Hindered psychomotor skills due to non-physical play
– Health risks due to increased sedentary activity
– Risks of prolonged use of digital displays
– Challenges of adult centric ergonomics of devices
• Socio-emotional
– Reduced social and inter-generational play
– Reduced conversation and use of language

www.learnovatecentre.org
Also in the Report…
• Cost-effectiveness
– Market size
– Market competitiveness
– Development costs
AppStore Education Section (Shuler, Levine, & Ree, 2012)

www.learnovatecentre.org
Summary
• Developmental appropriateness is a key
design factor for this age group
– Considerable differences even within 3-6 year olds
• Limited research and evaluation
– Anecdotal evidence common amongst commercial
games
– Proven benefits in certain domains
• Ethical considerations
• Need for further research in this fast growing
market

www.learnovatecentre.org
The report is available at:
http://www.learnovatecentre.org/research
-report-digital-game-based-learning-for-
early-childhood/
neil.peirce@scss.tcd.ie
Questions?

www.learnovatecentre.org
References
• 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. Retrieved from
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED445803&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&ac
cno=ED445803
• Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32 – 42. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1176008
• Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the Life Cycle. Psyche (Vol. 7). New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Retrieved from
http://books.google.ie/books/about/Identity_and_the_life_cycle.html?id=Ok5qAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y
• Florou, D., Mavroudi, C., Haidi, I., Gouscos, D., & Meimaris, M. (2001). Animating DGBL in Pre-School , Primary and Special Education : Three Case Studies.
(M. Pivec, Ed.)Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Games Based Learning, 124–134.
• Gage, N. L., & Berliner, D. C. (1998). Educational Psychology (6th ed.). Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
• Gallahue, D. L., & Ozmun, J. C. (2006). Understanding Motor Development: Infants, Children, Adolescents, Adults (Sixth.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Gillon, G. T. (2004). Phonological Awareness: From Research to Practice. New York: The Guilford Press. Retrieved from
http://books.google.ie/books?id=PvM_zdY4I3kC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Hutt, S. J., Tyler, S., Hutt, C., & Christopherson, H. (1989). Play, Exploration and Learning: a Natural History of the Pre-School. London and New York: Routledge.
• Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. London: Prentice-Hall.
• Leutner, D. (1993). Guided discovery learning with computer-based simulation games: Effects of adaptive and non-adaptive instructional support. Learning and
Instruction, 3(2), 113–132. doi:10.1016/0959-4752(93)90011-N
• Marco, J., Cerezo, E., Baldassarri, S., Mazzone, E., & Read, J. C. (2009). Bringing tabletop technologies to kindergarten children. HCI 2009 (pp. 103–111).
Retrieved from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1671011.1671023
• Montessori, M. (1912). The Montessori method : scientific pedagogy as applied to child education in “The children’s houses” with additions and revisions by the
author. Heinemann.
• 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), 173–189. doi:10.1006/jecp.1996.0027
• Piaget, J. (1962). Play, dreams, and imitation in childhood. Morton ibrary (Vol. 24, pp. 316–339). Norton. Retrieved from
http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/peterson/Psy2302011/03Piaget.pdf
• Plowman, L., & Stephen, C. (2005). Children, play, and computers in pre-school education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 36(2), 145–157.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2005.00449.x
• Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2003). Rules of play: game design fundamentals. MIT Press. Retrieved from
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/leon.2004.37.5.414
• Savery, J. R., & Duffy, T. M. (1995). Problem Based Learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework. Educational Technology, (35), 31–38.
• Sharp, C. (2002). School Starting Age : European Policy and Recent Research. LGA Seminar “When Should our Children Start School?” London: National
Foundation for Educational Research. Retrieved from http://www.emie.co.uk/nfer/publications/44414/44414.pdf
• Sung, Y.-T., Chang, K.-E., & Lee, M.-D. (2008). Designing multimedia games for young children’s taxonomic concept development. Computers &
Education, 50(3), 1037–1051. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2006.07.011