Application of Somatosensory Computer Game for Nutrition Education in Preschool Children

Abstract

With the popularization of technological products, people’s everyday lives are now full of 3C (computer, communication, and consumer electronics) products. Children have gradually become acquainted with these new technological products. In recent years, more somatosensory games have been introduced along with the development of new media puzzle games for children. Several studies have shown that somatosensory games can improve physical, brain, and sensory integrated development in children, as well as promoting parent–child and peer interactions and enhancing children’s attention and cooperation in play. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of integrating somatosensory computer games into early childhood nutrition education. The subjects of this study were 15 preschool children (aged 5–6 years old) from a preschool in Taichung City, Taiwan. We used the somatosensory game “Arno’s Fruit and Vegetable Journey” as an intervention tool for early childhood nutrition education. The somatosensory game production uses the Scratch software combined with Rabboni sensors. The somatosensory game education intervention was carried out for one hour a week over two consecutive weeks. We used questionnaires and nutrition knowledge learning sheets to evaluate the early childhood nutrition knowledge and learning status and satisfaction degree in the first and second weeks of this study. The results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the preschool children’s game scores and times, as well as nutritional knowledge scores, before and after the intervention. Most of the preschool children highly enjoyed the somatosensory game educational activities. We reveal some problems in the teaching activities of somatosensory games, which can provide a reference for future research on designing and producing somatosensory games for preschool children and somatosensory game-based education.