When Preschoolers Use Tablets: The Effect of Educational Serious Games on Children’s Attention Development

ABSTRACT

This quasi-experimental study investigated the effect of an educational tablet app based on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences with game mechanics and multiple-media features on young children’s attention. Participants (N = 128) aged between 3 and 4 years from a preschool in a northeastern city of China were divided into the experimental and the control groups based on their gender and age. The experimental group underwent training in using the app twice a week for 12 weeks, while the control group followed regular activities. Gaze duration (which indicates sustained attention) and first fixation latency (which reveals attention orientation speed) were analyzed before and after the training. Although Children’s fixation latency was not associated with the intervention, compared to the control group, the experimental group showed significant improvement in gaze duration, suggesting a better-sustained attention development. The result reinforces the previous findings that educational digital game apps could promote young children’s attention development.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the participating preschool classes, teachers, and children and acknowledge the helpful comments from anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure of potential conflict of interest

We have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Guangzhou Biostime Institute of Nutrition & Care [BINCMCF1501].

Notes on contributors

Wen Liu

Wen Liu is a professor and associate dean at the College of Psychology at Liaoning Normal University. Her field of expertise is social and educational development of children and adolescents. She has published dozens of SCI, SSCI, and CSSCI theses and texts.

Liting Tan

Liting Tan is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the College of Psychology at Liaoning Normal University. She graduated with a Master’s degree in computer science from Texas State University and has worked as an application engineer in Intel Corp. at Chandler, Arizona from 2006 to 2016.

Dan Huang

Dan Huang graduated with a Master’s degree in psychology from Liaoning Normal University in 2018. She is a teacher of psychology at a middle school in Shenyang, Liaoning. Her main area of interest is mental health education.

Nan Chen

Nan Chen is a lecturer in the College of Psychology at Liaoning Normal University. Her main research interest is children’s individual capabilities in the developmental stage.

Fang Liu

Fang Liu is a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Ningbo University. His main research interest is the relationship between early adversity and social emotional development.