The Relation Between Young Children’s Behaviors During Play With Tablet Coding Games

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

Technology is ubiquitous in young children’s lives, especially since the recent stay-at-home orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study focuses on a crucial question, how young children play educational digital games.

This study was conducted in a coding summer camp where young children (N=27, Mage= 5.15 years) played two different tablet games on their own tablet while sitting in a group. While both games focus on teaching coding skills, they have different features. Daisy the Dinosaur is a free play game and Kodable is structured with levels that increase in difficulty.

We analyzed video recordings of the sessions for individual and group behavior creating content codes. We selected six behaviors that aligned with common design features of games to analyze. See Table 1 for the codes and game features.

We examined how behaviors varied based on the game the child was playing and how these behaviors related to each other. Research question 1 was, “Are there differences in children’s behavior based on the game they played?” Frequency counts for each code were created and Chi-square examined differences between the two games (see Table 1 for significance test). We found that children were more solitary in their play, more likely to compare themselves to their peers, and more likely to celebrate their successes when playing the game, Kodable compared to Daisy, (p<.05). We found that children were more off-task during Daisy compared to Kodable (p<.05). There was no significant difference between the other behaviors (p’s >.2).

We were also interested in understanding relationships between the behaviors. Research question 2 was, “Are there certain patterns of behavior that occur when playing?” Correlation coefficients examined the relationships between the behavior codes (see Table 2). Children who played independently were less likely to be off task, to ask for help, and to be frustrated in both games (all p’s<.01). These findings suggest that children who were able to play on their own were able to stay focused and, likely, be more successful at the game. Conversely, children who needed help and were frustrated were more likely to be off-task and distracted.

Our research suggests that children’s play with tablets varies depending on the type of game. We suspect that our findings can be explained by the features of the games (free-play vs structured levels) combined with the 1:1 child to tablet setting. Kodable’s structure and levels may have motivated children to succeed. Having levels also may have led children to compare their success to their peers. The open-ended structure of Daisy may have meant that children were unsure if they were doing well, and less likely to stay focused. Features of games must be considered when selecting digital games for young children. While the games themselves can scaffold experiences, parents and educators should provide additional scaffolding for some games in order for children to learn how to play, stay on task, and ultimately, learn from the game. Future research should explore if these behaviors impact children’s learning from digital games.

Authors

• Maya Lennon, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Pila, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rachel M Flynn, San Francisco State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ellen A Wartella, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author