Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
6
Findings
Analysis of data was performed to determine what kinds of interactions children were
engaged in while playing Anim-action. We examined independent behavior, as
defined as a child receiving a score of 5 (independent) or 4 (limited prompting) for a
particular item. Similarly, dependent behavior is defined as a child receiving a score
of 1 (dependent) or 2 (partially dependent). Results indicate that most children were
able to engage independently in the cognitive activities of color matching (85%),
shape matching (85%), problem solving (77%), task focus (85%) and body awareness
(85%). Fig. 2 details the results for cognitive engagement across the five items
measured. Similarly, most children were able to independently engage in physical
activities while playing Anim-action (Fig. 3). They independently exhibited
concentration on movement (85%), balance (100%) and motor planning (92%).
100%
100%
Cognitive Skills
Physical Skills
80%
80%
60%
60%
40%
40%
20%
20%
0%
0%
Colour Matching
Shape Matching
Concentration on Movement
Balance
Motor Planning
Problem Solving
Focus on Task
Body Awareness
Fig. 2.
Children's engagement in cognitive and physical activity
Scores for independent activity were considerably lower in the communication and
social interaction categories. In both areas a more bi-modal distribution is evident,
such that children were either relatively independent in their behavior, or no behavior
was exhibited at all (see Fig. 3). Investigation of communication skills engaged in
while playing Anim-action shows that requests for help were limited, with 11 of the
13 children never requesting help. There was slightly more evidence of independent
labeling of objects (54%), turn-taking communication (62%) and general
communication (46%). While results show that cooperation was limited, with 10 of
the 13 children exhibiting no cooperative behavior, children were observed engaging
in other independent social activity: 62% were able to independently regulate their
behavior and 62% were able to independently wait for a turn and all children listened
for direction (either independently or with assistance).
