See, Touch, and Feel: Enhancing Young Children's Empathy Learning Through a Tablet Game

Wu, Ling; Kim, Minkang

doi:10.1111/mbe.12218

Cited by 12 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(83 reference statements)

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“…In line with our hypothesis, the Zirkus Empathico group, compared to controls, showed improvements in our primary outcome measure empathy, reflected by greater increases in the EMK 3-6 empathy parent rating. This finding resonates with previous research reporting improvements in empathy after preschoolers engaged with a digital SEC training in the classroom setting (Wu & Kim, 2019). Interestingly, no training group differences were detected for the GEM empathy parent rating as further primary outcome.…”

Section: Sec Measure Associations With P3 Amplitudessupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Sample size was estimated with G*Power (Faul et al, 2007), assuming a 20% attrition rate (e.g., Wadepohl et al, 2011) and a medium effect for the primary measure of empathy regarding group differences after a digital SEC training (e.g., Wu & Kim, 2019).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As one of the first, Wu and Kim (2019) presented promising evidence in 3-5-year-old preschoolers assessing the touchscreen application Empathy World with behavioral measures and event-related potentials (ERPs).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A randomized controlled trial on the digital socio-emotional competence training Zirkus Empathico for preschoolers

Naumann¹,

Bayer²,

Kirst³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The development of socio-emotional competencies (SEC) has proven key for school and life success as well as for preventing mental illness. Digital SEC trainings create new ways to strengthen children’s mental health especially in times of disrupted childcare and subsequent increase of mental health problems due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the potential benefits, few studies examined the effectiveness of digital SEC trainings in young children. In a six-week study, we tested the digital SEC training Zirkus Empathico with four- to six-year-old typically developing children (N = 60) using parent and child SEC ratings as well as EEG. The registered primary outcome was empathy (GEM, EMK 3-6); secondary outcomes included emotion knowledge (EMK 3-6), prosocial behavior (SDQ), reduction of problematic behaviors (SDQ), and children’s neural sensitivity to facial expressions quantified with early (P1, N170) and late (P3) event-related potentials. Compared to age- and gender-matched controls (N = 30), the Zirkus Empathico group (N = 30) showed increases in empathy, emotion recognition, prosocial behavior and reduced behavioral problems post-training and increases in empathy in a three months follow-up. Zirkus Empathico participants had larger P3 amplitudes for happy vs. neutral facial expressions, whereas larger P3 amplitudes for angry vs. neutral facial expressions were found for controls. Given the training group’s improvements across behavioral measures, Zirkus Empathico may be a promising digital SEC training. EEG results seem to corroborate behavioral findings: The training group allocated more neural resources toward happy faces potentially indicative of training-induced, accelerated maturation regarding the regulation of positive emotional states.

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Section: Sec Measure Associations With P3 Amplitudessupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A randomized controlled trial on the digital socio-emotional competence training Zirkus Empathico for preschoolers

Naumann¹,

Bayer²,

Kirst³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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show abstract

“…Empathic concern, in turn, serves as the antecedent of valuing others’ wellbeing (Batson, Eklund, Chermok, Hoyt, & Ortiz, ) and is a driver for prosocial behaviour (FeldmanHall, Dalgleish, Evans, & Mobbs, ). The positive relation between playing the Empathy World and enhanced empathic perception is supported by a brain imaging study showing enhanced empathic sensitivity to harming social interactions and increased attention to others' feelings from teachers’ observations (Wu & Kim, ). These results suggest that hybridity design focusing on digitalising empathic perception can modulate the way these children “see” social situations through developed selective attention and a longitudinal selective tendency .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Another limitation of this study is a lack of evidene showing how hybrid design mediated social learning would necessarily translate into real‐life social situations. While a recent study has shown that playing the Empathy World has increased children’s attention to other’s feelings in teachers’ observations (Wu & Kim, ), how hybridised game design and engagement in gameplay can promote real‐life prosocial behaviour and emotion understanding calls for further study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing young children’s empathic perception through digitally mediated interpersonal experience: Principles for a hybrid design of empathy games

Wu¹,

Kim²,

Markauskaitė³

2020

Brit J Educational Tech

Self Cite

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There is an emerging concern that modern technology‐saturated environments, particularly computer games, are inhibiting the development of children’s empathic behaviour and social skills. We argue that the solution is embedded in the problem when hybrid learning design blends real‐life social interpersonal interactions with digital representations. We present theory‐informed design principles for creating tablet games with a focus on promoting empathic perception—a building block for the ability to see, sense and understand other’s internal states. Based on these principles, the game Empathy World was developed and trialled in a naturalistic three‐month study in an early childhood education setting. Children learned to perceive empathy‐worthy cues in various scenes and interacted with the tablet game to further their perspective‐taking and to associate emotions with social contexts. The findings from this study show an increase in the selective tendency of children’s in‐game perception of empathy‐worthy stimuli and enhanced empathic concern. We argue that future design for learning can utilise the strengths of hybrid design for social development at a larger scale: integrating theoretically informed and rigorously tested digital tools in existing educational and social environments. What is already known about this topic Research has examined various developmental benefits of empathy and shown that empathy can be learnt. Digital games can be productive, easy to scale, tools that support learning. Sound design, based on theory‐informed principles, can improve the effectiveness of digital learning games. What this paper adds It synthesises theories and research evidence of empathy and its development. It shows how empathy‐related theoretical ideas and evidence were translated into hybrid design principles for developing empathy games and embedding them into children’s social learning environment. It illustrates how theory‐ and evidence‐informed design principles were used to create a digital game to enhance empathic learning of young children in a hybrid technology‐mediated environment. It explores and validates the effectiveness of a hybrid design approach by implementing the digital empathy game in children’s natural learning environment and analysing the data by capturing emerging patterns of development stemming from gameplay. Implications for practice and/or policy Pre‐schools could enhance children's empathy learning by integrating specially designed empathy games in existing learning environments. Teachers and parents should be informed about how to create game‐mediated hybrid environments that enhance children’s empathy.

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Embrained, Embodied Values: Pedagogical Insights from Developmental Neuroscience

Kim

2023

Springer International Handbooks of Education

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See, Touch, and Feel: Enhancing Young Children's Empathy Learning Through a Tablet Game

Cited by 12 publications

References 55 publications

A randomized controlled trial on the digital socio-emotional competence training Zirkus Empathico for preschoolers

A randomized controlled trial on the digital socio-emotional competence training Zirkus Empathico for preschoolers

Developing young children’s empathic perception through digitally mediated interpersonal experience: Principles for a hybrid design of empathy games

Embrained, Embodied Values: Pedagogical Insights from Developmental Neuroscience

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