Educational Video Games Enrich Underprivileged Children’s Social Skills in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The current study attempts to explore the effect of the educational video games on enriching the social skills of underprivileged children in Saudi Arabia. It compares the social skills of underprivileged children who do and do not have access to educational video games through IPads. To accomplish the goals of the study; twenty underprivileged kindergarten's children who do not have IPads aged five years old were chosen randomly from one of the public schools in Riyadh city (school 56 for girls) to participate in the study. Ten of them were given access for the first time to educational video games through using Android IPads to enrich their social skills. The other ten children were in the control group without an access to educational video games. The researcher downloaded ten educational video games on to the IPads, which are suitable for the sample's age, culture, and study purpose. Ten IPads were given to the ten underprivileged families whom their child is an experimental group's member in this study. The sampled children were required to play these educational games for two hours daily for three months at home and for one hour at school under the supervision of their parents and teachers. The researcher used the Child's Social Scale CSS (Abdul Magsood &Al-Sarsee,2007) as a pre-post measurement to assess the level of the underprivileged Children's Social Skills. Results showed that the underprivileged children become more sociable, saying goodbey, thank you,excuse me,sorry when apologising to others, following rules and appreciating each other. In light of the results of the research, the researcher recommended schools in Saudi Arabia to use videogames to improve children's social skills either rich or poor. In addition, she recommended the commercial companies of IPads to pay attention to the underprivileged children in the country through producing economical IPads with low prices to enable them to own their personal IPads which will enhance their social skills alongside rich children.

The Effect of Using Educational Games as a Tool in Teaching English Vocabulary to Arab Young Children: A Quasi-Experimental Study in a Kindergarten School in Saudi Arabia

“…In the Saudi context, a study was conducted by Al Saud (2017) in Al-Riyadh to explore the effect of using educational video games on the social skills of underprivileged children. The researcher used ten educational video games on the IPads with the experimental group, while the control group did not have access to play the games.…”

Game-based learning in early childhood education: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…A study conducted by Craig et al (2016) found that game-based intervention improved social skills such as cooperation, communication, and empathy in preschool children. Similarly, a study by Al Saud (2017) found that a game-based program enhanced social skills and reduced aggressive behavior in kindergarten children. Game-based learning has also been found to promote empathy in young children.…”