The University of Trento joined forces with the University of Geneva to test a video game for boys and girls which helps improve reading skills. In a study published in Nature Human Behavior, researchers demonstrated that children make progress in reading skills after just twelve hours of training. In particular, these improvements persist over time and are also reflected in higher marks in Italian
The videogame developed some time ago at the University of Trento and tested in collaboration with the University of Geneva has recently been praised by the academic community. Skies of Manawak, that's its name, was designed to train learning and reading skills. Researchers in fact demonstrated that with just about twelve hours of "training", through play sessions, children improve their skills. They also demonstrated that the progress made in reading is maintained even six months later, and children have higher marks in Italian. The results of the study were spread by the scientific article published in Nature Human Behaviour.
Angela Pasqualotto, first author of the article, a researcher in Switzerland and Italy, laid the foundations of the Skies of Manawak project while attending her PhD at the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science of the University of Trento, supervised by Paola Venuti with the collaboration of Antonella De Angeli. Paola Venuti, advisor of the project, commented: "In 2015 Angela Pasqualotto started working on a video game to train executive functions at the Laboratory of Observation, Diagnosis and Training (ODFlab) of the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science. Scientific literature had already demonstrated the effectiveness of cognitive training to increase useful skills in different learning domains. These instruments, however, often had the limit of being not very exciting, or even boring. So, we set ourselves the goal of creating an engaging and fun video game and we focused on the effect it could have on reading in school-age children".
Angela Pasqualotto told us something more about the game and the scientific evidence of its effectiveness in improving the reading skills of boys and girls: "Skies of Manawak combines mini-games that train different executive functions such as those related to memory and cognitive flexibility, that come into play when we read". The game is set on a fictional planet, where children find the Raku, a flying creature, who accompanies them on different missions to save the planets. The video game is suitable for children because it contains no violence.
The experimental tests were carried out by the Observation, Diagnosis and Training Laboratory of the University of Trento on a group of 150 children aged 8 to 12. The sample was divided into two sub-groups: one group played with Skies of Manawak, the second with Scratch, a game that teaches the basics of coding. The training lasted six weeks, with children playing two hours per week at school. Researchers tested reading skills and attention skills both before and after training, and six months later. "We found a significant improvement in attention span among those who had played the video game. We also observed clear progress in reading, not only in terms of speed, but in accuracy as well. It is interesting to note that children improve their reading skills even though the video game does not require any reading", Pasqualotto commented. "Furthermore, the trained children obtained over time better marks in Italian, showing an increase in their learning abilities", she added.
The work now continues at the University of Geneva (with Daphne Bavelier), in collaboration with Irene Altarelli (co-author of the article and researcher at the University of Paris). Thanks to the research consortium NCCR Evolving Language, versions of the game in German, French and English will soon be developed. Children can play from home and the game will also offer reading and executive function tests.
About the Article
The article "Enhancing reading skills through a video game mixing action mechanics and cognitive training" was written by Angela Pasqualotto (University of Trento and University of Geneva), Irene Altarelli (University of Paris), Zeno Menestrina, Antonella De Angeli (University of Trento, now University of Bolzano), Daphne Bavelier (University of Geneva) and Paola Venuti (University of Trento). It was published in Nature Human Behavior on 17 January 2022,and is available in Open Access at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01254-x