Can Literacy and Numeracy be improved using computer games?

Jonathan Reed and Misbah Khan

About me: Dr Jonathan Reed

Child Neuropsychology ;Study of child’s brain and psychological development and how they interact- see Reed and Warner Rogers – Child Neuropsychology 2008

Recolo – Child neuropsychological rehabilitation.

How the project came about

Know quite a bit about how children develop

Believe games and play are important ways for children (everyone) to learn.

How to integrate these ideas and disseminate this knowledge

Reading – quick summary

Reading- requires cracking the code between groups of symbols (letters) and sounds (phonemes).

There are 44 phonemes to learn in English

Need to blend the sounds together to read words

Need to automatically learn to recognise words to read fluently

The case for phonics

Children’s phonological awareness predicts reading ability in longitudinal studies (Maclean, Bryant and Bradley 1987).

Training children in phonological awareness improves reading development by up to 12 months compared to controls – (Bradley and Bryant 1983)

Most European languages have a simple phonological structure CV- Children in Greece (98%) and Italy (95%) learn to read with almost 100 % accuracy in first year in school. This is compared to English which has complex phonological structure (only 34% accuracy in first year)

The Brain areas involved in reading

3 main areas:

Parieto-temporal region for word analysis

Occipito-temporal region for word form

Inferior frontal gyrus for word articulation and analysis; Shaywitz 2003

Intervention

Meyler 2008 shows poor activation of left brain areas in poor readers.

100 hours of phonics training.

Activation in left brain areas.

Gains maintained 1 year later.

Maths facts

Know the developmental stages in maths (Gelman & Gallistel 1978):

Learn that number words follow a set order

Learn that each number is only linked to one object (1 to 1 correspondence)

Learn that number of objects by the last number word (cardinal principal)

Learn to add on numbers

Brain Area Neumerosities: Key

concept: Automatically recognisisng the numbers in a set (Butterworth 2008).

Present in very young children.

Associated with Intraparietal Sulcus

Maths development

Following development of basic understanding – need to learn automatic number bonds.

This reduces reliance on working memory.

Therefore know quite a lot about how reading and maths develop

Why do so many children still have difficulties learning (e.g. 16% children have difficulties reading at KS1)

What can we do about it ?

Advantages of Computer games in learning

Motivation (games designers are experts at motivation)

Allows a standardised evidence based approach

Disseminating information

Removing Social Anxiety (can learn at own pace)

Lends itself to research

Neurogames

Created four games to help children develop maths and literacy

Key Neurogame features

Based on neuropsychological theory

Rewards at different levels

Follows Developmental sequence

Based on error free learning technique

Bright engaging graphics

Designed by Media Kitchen

Literacy 1 letter lilies

Reward page

Literacy word patch

Numeracy – Tomato tumble

Numeracy- Nutty Numbers

Misbah Khan

Need to research whether the games work.

Misbah undertaking a research degree .

Able to independently assess the games effectiveness.

Aim/ Hypothesis

Aims to investigate if short term exposure to the Neurogames, improves Reading and

Mathematic abilities

Methodology 1

Materials:

4 subtests of the WPPSI - to indicate IQ

WIAT Subtests - Literacy and Mathematics ability.

Neurogames – presented on a laptop

Participants: Twenty 4-6yrs Subjects.

Methodology 2

Ethics/ Information sheet, letters, consent form.

20 subjects given WPPSI (IQ) and WIAT tests.

10 matched subjects play the games for 6 weeks.

20 subjects re-tested with WIAT.

Analysis

Statistical Analysis.

A series of independent samples t-tests were conducted.

Showed there was no significant difference in pre test mathematics, reading and IQ scores between the experimental groups and the control groups

Analysis 2

Paired sample t-tests was conducted to compare mathematics scores and reading scores before

and after exposure to the Neurogames

This showed mathematics and reading scores significantly improved following exposure to

the Neurogames.

Table of pre and post test scores

Pre-test Post-test

N 10 10

Mean Mathematics Score

102.20 123.70

SD 12.506 11.441

Mean Reading Score 101.70 114.19

SD 11.719 16.901

Analysis 3

Independent samples t-tests - to compare post test mathematic and reading scores between the

experimental and control groups

Post test mathematic scores were significantly higher for the experimental group than the control group.

 

Post test reading scores were higher for the experimental group than the control group, however this difference

was not significant

Scores of experimental group compared to control group

Experimental GroupExposed to Neurogames

Control GroupNot exposed to Neurogames

N 10 10

Mean post-test Mathematic score

123.70 109.90

SD 11.441 13.287

Mean post-test Reading score 114.90 109.10

SD 16.901 15.878

Other Findings

There was no significant

difference in changed

mathematic or reading

scores between males

and females.

The initial IQ subtest

score did not significantly

correlate with either level

of improved reading or

mathematics scores.

Conclusions

Shows Neurogames are effective in improving reading and maths significantly after brief intervention.

Can create games based on Developmental Neuropsychological theory.

By basing on theory also shown that they can be very effective in improving learning.

Need to expand and replicate- small sample

Need to try with children who find learning difficult- Dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD, Intellectual delay

Need to try with longer exposure -other intervention studies use 100 hours- this study based on approx 12 hours.

Potential

Idea of brain plasticity- some areas of the brain more open to intervention than others.

We know more about some areas of neuropsychological development.

Key candidates: Vocabulary, Working memory, Attention, Visual Motor ability, knowledge (semantic memory).

How do we create games for younger children. Think developmentally. Repeat activities. Simple rewards. Touch screen – ipad.