My daughter has been fighting off viral illness after viral illness due to preschool, and this means there have been a lot of movie watching and lazing about resting and gaming for her. She has two new peak interests now, Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland. Two books I’ve been dying to read to her, but since she isn’t old enough for chapter books I’ve held off. One day while we were waiting to be seen by a doctor, I thought I’d get her a new game. She requested Alice in Wonderland, and I figured that would be a great idea. In fact, it gave me the bright idea to actually start reading these books to her, and use multi-media to make up for the lack of pictures. I was thrilled with my new quest. I started looking for Alice in Wonderland apps, and I decided to go with this one that had a four star rating and tons of great reviews. It wasn’t a great game. It was a $2 disappointment. However, from that game, and my new plan for book reading came this post.
Some thoughts around game selecting criteria for your preschooler.
When I started reading the Alice in Wonderland app reviews, I was encouraged to buy based on the parents who were excited about the features, and the art. One parent even stated her four and seven year old children enjoyed the game. Sounds great, right? I thought so too. When my daughter started the app, we were both expecting a story book like Rosita, with reading, music, interactivity and excitement. It had no words, The game is really just a series of scenes with “interactive” characters and features. The characters and features might make a sound but generally they may grow, shrink, or shake and make the phone vibrate. It is accompanied by fun music, but it gets old fast. Eventually my daughter discovered the coloring book section, but gave that up pretty quick when she realized it was about like the little coloring menus you get at Red Robin. She played with it for a few minutes, then never looked at it after. I don’t really blame her. It did make me go back to the reviews and I wondered, what criteria are parents using when they select an app for their kids?
If you’ve made the decision to engage your little one in technology, it is important to keep a balance in mind, but equally as important to know the app isn’t serving the same purpose as Saturday morning cartoons. I am not saying that children should constantly learn while in an app, but they should at least be engaged, or interacting in a meaningful way. I’ve thought through a set of criteria that I look for in games for my daughter.
The app must be engaging. There are plenty of movies on Netflix for passive entertainment. I want my daughter to spend at least the first few minutes exploring the app, learning what buttons make it play, what buttons change levels, and what buttons are just for parents. Then I want her to still be excited beyond the menu, I want something that provides problem solving, and above all, is fun.
Failure is okay. It’s okay for her to lose and need to start over again. I know this seems like a weird thing to look for, but allowing a child to experience failure is a very important part of childhood. It also allows me the opportunity to give her encouragement, and work through problem solving strategies. I think games are great for this because they are fun, and most likely the child doesn’t even realize they are picking up great skills for the future. So most of the time, I rarely choose games that aren’t fully engaging with the ability for failure.
Replayability. In a game I get for my PC or even on the phone or tablet, I am always thinking about how long I will actually play the game before I get bored. In the case of the PC, I consider how much I’d like playing a game the second time around before I buy; similar to a book. When you read a good book, you want to put it on a shelf, and remember to re-read at a later date, because the experience is going to be completely different. I try to keep this in mind for my daughter when I am thinking about games for her. Sandbox style games like Toca Builder are great for these, because a child’s imagination is actually the limit of the game. They can come in and create nearly any world they want to.
Co-op opportunities. The point, for me, in letting my daughter play games, isn’t so that she will be amused in a car ride, or at the store. I love it when she wants to show me how to do something, or take turns on levels. I think a game gets it right when they find a way to draw the parents in too. Bug-mazing did a great job with this. My daughter and I can play that game for a while before I am looking for a good excuse to walk away. We take turns on levels and we have plenty of opportunities for problem solving. At the same time, I want a game that is going to keep my kiddo independently thinking as well.
Learning new skills. Interestingly, this is later in my list of the biggies. Don’t get me wrong, it is incredibly important that she is able to learn something from a game, but if it isn’t fun, replayable, and providing opportunities for independent thought, then I might as well read her a textbook, right? I think the key to learning with a game, comes first from the game being engaging and exceptionally fun. A child could almost passively learn from the connections they make while they are having fun.
Turtle & Mouse 