The Learning Through Gaming: Educational Toys

Abstract

Learning fluently is an extremely important skill for all children to acquire. Many children are growing up in diverse bilingual or multilingual contexts and learn to speak and read in more than one language. It is crucial that children who are having problems in learning due to phonological difficulties are identified early, and that appropriate screening instruments are designed in their native language(s). Appropriate intervention programs can then be implemented. In bilingual and multilingual children the situation is even more complex as they have to learn using different writing systems, often concurrently. As bilingual children can have different phonological awareness profiles in their two languages, it is desirable to assess children in both of the languages spoken. In relation to multilingual children, assessing phonological and reading skills becomes an even more complex task.

1 Introduction

Learning fluently is an extremely important skill for all children to acquire. Many children are growing up in diverse bilingual or multilingual contexts and learn to speak and read in more than one language. It is crucial that children who are having problems in learning due to phonological difficulties are identified early, and that appropriate screening instruments are designed in their native language(s). Appropriate intervention programs can then be implemented. In bilingual and multilingual children the situation is even more complex as they have to learn using different writing systems, often concurrently. As bilingual children can have different phonological awareness profiles in their two languages, it is desirable to assess children in both of the languages spoken. In relation to multilingual children, assessing phonological and reading skills becomes an even more complex task. The current paper explores various parameters which impart knowledge through games by comparing two different scripts as learning during childhood.

2 Problem Definition

Becoming literate is a very imperative skill to acquire, and children who fail to learn to read and write in general undergo the long-term corollaries of this disability. It is critical that problems or delays in reading are detected early, so that appropriate intervention programs can be instigated. However, literacy skills and their acquisition vary across languages and across printed forms of languages. It is therefore crucial that the assessment instruments used to screen children are developed in the child’s own language or languages. This is crucial for children learning to read different languages throughout the world, and in particular for children growing up in multilingual contexts where children learn to speak and read in more than one language.

2.1 Germ of this paper

The problem as mentioned above that learning should happen in a child’s own language opened a new dimension of a comparative study of different existing games in the Indian market. Along with a comparative study between conservative education forums and playful methods in education so as to aid the learning methodologies.

3 Objective

To study various games that impart knowledge in the existing Indian market. Games impart fun and knowledge during play. The current paper is a hypothesis to associate the Roman script and Devanagari script acquisition methodologies and their mediums. Also, investigate whether Devanagari script games are individual innovative applications or a replica of Roman script games. Among the vast variety of games, the concepts presented here can find applications as well as contradictions in board games, outdoor games, video games, imaginative play, and professional games.

3.1 Learning during play

Every game involves a learning process. In this context, we have to note that the meaning of ‘learning’ is not limited to formal education alone. It also includes acquiring several qualities which are not part of the normal education curriculum.

Considering the age levels from kinder gardens till growing and developing ages (till five years) there are many games manufactured for the development of the child. Living in a diverse nation and considering the education system English is the language of instruction, teaching, and learning, English as it is progressed in school as a first language (EFL). Individuals who speak and use two languages on a regular basis are often referred to as being bilingual. If we are bilingual, or second languages and first then we are multilingual. (We refer to any language learned after the first as a second language, even if it is the third or fourth you have learned.) According to Dr. Kathleen Alfano, former director of child research at Fisher-price; a variety of toys for learning, not just those labeled as such. In some way, all toys have some learning benefits. In fact, you’d be amazed by what children can learn from even the most basic toys. For example, blocks and building toys provide exposure to math concepts such as how many, more than, and less than. They also offer experience in the critical thinking skill of estimation, in addition to enhancing problem-solving skills and creative thinking. Puzzles, stacking toys, shape sorters and many other toys foster eye-hand coordination and fine motor development- important skills for learning to write. Further, Dr adds that books and toys that focus on letters, words, and phonics help develop literacy, language, and reading skills. Toys are first and foremost all about having fun and providing pleasure and enjoyment to children. Because most toys are intrinsically developmental, providing the right toy at the right time may be all that is needed to stimulate learning.

3.2 Exuberance and play

Considering the gaming system where the core being fun. Unexpected challenges are thrown up by the gameplay (the system) and the process of trying to overcome them, these challenges, by certain actions within the structure of the game (rules), are what imparts amusement.

According to the targeted age one falls in the respective categories by their choice. Considering the current scenario of the learning environment tabletop, video, and educational games are the keys to the development of a child.

Tabletop games Video games Educational games:

• Board Arcade Letter
• Card Computer Mathematical
• Miniature Online Parlour
• Dice (Chance) Chance Memory (Chance)
• Pencil-Paper Handheld Locative
• Tile Mobile Color
• Role Mini Spelling
• Carom Flash Interactive
• Strategy Strategy Strategy
• Real time Casual Reading
• Thematic Escape Recognition

For any game, the most important element required is a skill to accomplish it. Therefore there are three important and basic factors, which determine the suitability of a game for any particular age group. They are CHANCE, SKILL, and STRATEGY.

4 Game Analysis

4.1 Technology applications

Technology plays a vital role in the learning process electronic gadgets is in the forefront. Below are top 10 mobile learning games for children below 5 years to learn the roman alphabet.

The games above involve different aspects such as care, learning, recognition, strategy, exploring, coloring, interaction, and sound. Following are the advantages of the playful educational environment.

1. Play way methods take into consideration the overall development of the child.
2. The holistic development approach takes into consideration, sensory-motor, physical, cognitive as well as social-emotional development.
3. Enables each child to set up independent learning goals.
4. Is learner-centric and not teacher-centric.
5. Emphasizes on learning by doing and helps in better internalization.
6. Enables peer group learning in which differently-abled children would actually enhance the learning of normal children too.
7. Enables integrated learning i.e. learning of different skills and knowledge bases from one source.
8. For Devanagari learning mobile apps is restricted to interaction and innovative execution methods which can be observed below. However, these are not the ideal examples but easily accessible mediums of learning when investigated by tutors.

4.2 Color Palate

Color Palate of roman alphabets. Colors play an important role in learning. Vibrant the color palate more attraction is gained. A basic example of roman alphabets and color is used below. Color Palate of Devanagari alphabet game is less attractive as compared to Roman.

5 Statement

The new parameters of acquiring Devanagari script with Roman script seem insufficient to learn in a more creative way. This paper attempts to state a hypothesis to compare the existing ways of learning respective scripts. Are the new ways of learning Devanagari innovative and rooted to fundamentals or just a replica of roman learning games?

6 Observation

1. Scripts differ in appearance, the visual form of its symbol set.
2. Symbol units, called akshara, represent sounds at the level of both a syllable and a phoneme (8).
3. In contrast, the alphabetic scripts of languages like English represent sounds at the level of the phoneme.
4. Interdependency on scripts to learn individual script. (Transfer of learning)
5. As bilingual children can have different phonological awareness profiles in their two languages, it is desirable to assess children in both of the languages spoken with individual system rather than replicating each other.

7 Synthesis

Analyzing the games described above the following segment will explore the reasons as why they were chosen and what the outcomes were. Considering the conservative teaching forum and playful education techniques the above games are more effective.

In a conservative school, the instruction imparted places emphasis on primarily developing reasoning abilities and in acquiring knowledge. This is done through an educator-led system where the instructor imparts knowledge and children are supposed to evoke the same. The edification objectives are set by the educator and all the children are assumed to accomplish the same goals. This often leads to a competitive environment in the course. The motivation for students is most often praise from mentors or in the form of rank/prize. On the divergent, a playful method is learner-centric. Each child is able to set distinct goals of learning according to his/her aptitude and level. The child acquires to enjoy the whole spirit of learning and discovery and this becomes a pattern of learning even at a later stage. The learning is not limited to cognitive development but considers the overall development of the child. The learning is closer to real life and is interactive in nature. This ensures better internalization of learning. Below is a pictorial chart representation of the entire process of learning which caters to different levels of acquiring respective scripts. The playful method is more reliable as a conservative teaching forum thus we need different innovative individual games to learn.

8 Conclusion

It is extremely important that children in both monolingual and multilingual contexts become literate in a country like India. The results of the present research suggest that to enhance the acquisition to Devanagari recognition we need to develop individual learning games rather that temporary solutions. The learning through gaming should be more towards fundamental structures along with a phonological base. Thus the Devanagari script requires a more individual approach and designing sensitive articulated study material. From the above inference, it can be observed that Roman script offers more dimensions than Devanagari script there by creating a lacuna in absorbing Devanagari script hence creating a need of individual learning. The possibilities are an infinite and never-ending process. There is always scope for development in the existing research paper for self-development and society.

9 Approaching opportunity

Further, the research paper can give possibilities to device different innovative games to acquire Devanagari script with book diversities with vocabularies, abundant attitudes perhaps functional through devices and techniques.

10 Acknowledgement

I sincerely thank Dr.Prof. Santosh Kshirsagar, Dr. Sushil Shirsekar, Prof. Samip Sawant, and Mrs. Sheetal Sushil Shirsekar for helping me to absorb the concept and increasing my sensitivity toward my mother's script.