The role of adults in giving and receiving feedback for game design sessions with students of the early childhood

Abstract

Recent technologic advances and the continuous increase of software and hardware integration in people’s daily lives has extended research interest for the field of human computer interaction. User involvement in the design of software, among which games consist a big part, has also been on researchers’ spotlight, even from the early childhood. The aim of the present study is to explore and identify the impact of adult feedback on early childhood students’ design of games. The results presented are part of an ongoing and larger study that took place for three months and involved a team of eighteen kindergarten students, participating in game design sessions for a period of three months. The game design sessions were proposed, based on participatory design techniques and consisted of cross-generational teams of students and one adult. This paper studies how adult feedback influenced students’ decisions and work while designing their games, offering empirical evidence on the field of participatory and game design for the work with children of this age.