Investigating the Social and Temporal Aspects of Children's Physical Activity Games

Abstract

There are a variety of fitness technologies such as activity trackers, exergames and mobile applications available to promote physical activity. Based on our previous research, we found that children prefer having social interaction, a narrative and flexibility while interacting with such technologies. Other research has shown that persuasive displays encouraged adults towards physical activity. In this research, we present the initial results from a user study conducted on 16 children (ages 6-11) who used the Kidfit suite, a collection of mobile applications that combine and utilize the elements found from previous research to promote activity in children.

Engaging Children to Co-create Outdoor Play Activities for Place-making

“…the physical and societal aspects, is vital, especially to ensure relevance of place-making for children [6]. In this process, children need to have flexibility [42] to define their own rules [22], and social interaction and collaboration are key [32,42].…”

“…A method to invite children to consider outdoor play activities that can be played using the physical elements of their neighbourhood, potentially complemented with a digital mobile app, would seem in line with these findings. Further, as social interaction and collaboration are identified as key elements to successful placemaking [32,42], they should be central in both the PD method and activities. Finally, the need for flexibility for children to create their own rules of game for meaningful interaction is well-recognised [22,42].…”

“…Further, as social interaction and collaboration are identified as key elements to successful placemaking [32,42], they should be central in both the PD method and activities. Finally, the need for flexibility for children to create their own rules of game for meaningful interaction is well-recognised [22,42]. Children as co-researchers [47] is an approach with which they can design their own place-making activities, and should be included in the PD approach designed.…”

“…The school's interest is to increase children's sense of place and to stimulate exploration, enabling these children to broaden their perspective and increase their chances in life. Children co-create outdoor play activities for place-making on their terms [14,22,32,36,42] 3.1.2 Research participants. In consultation with the school director, the choice was made to design for the 7th grade children (aged ten to twelve years) as they are old enough to have some sense of their neighbourhood, come up with ideas, and have the potential to be followed up with in their final school year.…”

The (Potential) Role of Technology for Young Children’s Social-Emotional Learning

“…narratives, social interactions, and activities to create fun experiences required for young children [22]. Having studied interaction patterns among children and technology, the authors of Reference [8] observed that children want stories, a relationship with characters, to collect, to be creators and to be in control.…”