A Study of Parent-Child Play in a Multiplayer Competitive Educational Game

This study conducted an empirical study of parent-child play in a multiplayer competitive English vocabulary learning game to investigate parents' and children's attitudes towards educational games and whether there were differences between parents' and children's attitudes after parent-child play. Twenty groups of parent-child volunteers were recruited. The children were fifth or sixth grade elementary students. The results show that the educational game can effectively enhance children's recognition of English vocabulary. Both children and parents had positive attitudes towards the game in terms of pedagogy, game, society, and system. The results also reveal that children had significant higher ratings on pedagogy, game, and system than parents had and there was no significant difference on society. Interview responses show that parent-child play in multiplayer competitive educational games provides a solution for parents to help low academic performance children learn. Many parents gave their children advice to spell words and almost children were willing to accept advice even though they were opponents in the game. Children may feel a sense of accomplishment when they win their parents so that get motivated to learn through parent-child play. Children enjoyed parent-child play in that they can have more time to interact with their parents. This study provides evidences that parent-child play in educational games can be a possible way to not only let parents help children learn but also enhance parent-child relationships.