Experts from Italy and Switzerland recently conducted a study that will allow kids to elevate their reading skills. The team relayed the improvement approach through a novel child-friendly video game packed with action themes.
Children can learn letters by just listening to sound. A developing brain may associate these sounds through the letter they aim to remember, but not enough to master reading fully.
University of Geneva's (UNIGE) Psychology Section of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences (FPSE) expert Daphne Bavelier, who co-authored the study, explained that learning to read requires several aspects that are sometimes overlooked.
How Action Games Provide Reading Improvement for Kids
Most of the steps in reading include several complexities that we do not necessarily think of, such as exercising our memories to link important words to form a right and coherent thought and simply moving our eyes throughout the words on a page we are reading.
UNIGE psychology expert and first author of the study Angela Pasqualotto said in a EurekAlert report that in their research, it was found that several skills, including deployment of attention, vision, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, can be sharpened by action video games. Pasqualotto is also associated with the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science at the University of Trento.
The study developed a video game programmed with a set of mini-games to teach and exercise the neurological functions of children. The video games are themed with action to provide enticing elements to the kids. Each of the games was focused on inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility that is theorized to be correlated with reading development.
Pasqualotto explained that the game consists of a universe in which an alternate world will be explored by the main character. The child will be guided by a flying creature named Raku, and together, they will be diving into various missions that will save planets as the playthrough progresses.
According to scholars, the goal of the game is to incorporate action game elements into a training approach without the use of violent aspects. In this way, the game would entertain children as they learn effortlessly.
It was tested with the help of 150 Italian participants who all attended school and belonged in the age group of 8 to 12. The subjects were separated into two groups. The first team was tasked to play the game that the authors developed, and the second team was required to play with a game called Scratch, in which players are taught how to code.
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Heightened Reading Skills Observed From Action Game Players
Both games need attentional control from their players and provide a limited time to solve problems. In the developed action game, each of the challenges is guided by Raku and the sound that it produces. In Scratch, a more logical structure should be established to solve the program sequences.
The children took various examinations afterward to test their ability to read words, non-words, and paragraphs. They also take another exam to gauge their attentional control.
The kids were observed for two hours a week in six weeks as they continued training in either an action video game or control game. The examination was conducted in a complete two hours every day for six weeks. They were tested at school by the clinicians from the Laboratory of Observation Diagnosis and Education (UNITN). The experiments were repeated with each group, and with the results, the experts found that the attentional control of the kids has improved by seven times.
The increase of the said behavior, alongside additional reading speed and enhancement, was observed in the action game players. The Scratch players, on the other hand, did not improve any of their skills. According to the study, it can be concluded that literacy can be honed even if an action game does not run with any reading challenges.
The tests were followed by three sets, with an interval of 6, 12, and 18 months. The results showed a further improvement to the schoolchildren, which is evident with the rise of their grades. Through the collaboration of NCCR Evolving Language and the University of Paris LaPsyDé, the game will be launched into several languages, including English, German, and French.
The adaptations will be deployed remotely at home and will give further insights into the study. The paper was published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, titled "Enhancing reading skills through a video game mixing action mechanics and cognitive training."
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