Preventing Trauma Accidents in Children: An Ecosystem Based on Interactive Ludic Activities for Mobile and Web-Based Environments

Abstract

This research develops an informatics application, consisting in four virtual games that present three situations in which trauma produced by accidents in children occur. The games contain preventive information, supported by graphics which describe secure behavior, possible consequences of accidents and some elements that the child needs to avoid, immerse in children’s common sceneries as home and school. A familiar character (dog) was implemented to create a reference of security in children, so they could be able to associate all the information presented, in one figure. The tool was tested with two groups of regular school students from third to fifth grade. 31 children assisted to a traditional workshop, including physical ludic activities to transmit preventive information about accidents, and 30, learnt through the informatics application. Finally, students were evaluated through a brief questionnaire. In a preliminary analysis, results showed a higher impact on the group that used the informatics application, overpassing the traditional workshop with 6% points. To verify this, the results of the different topics of the workshops: pedestrian accidents, burns and intoxication, were averaged, evidencing a precision of 73.14% for the traditional workshop, and 79.72% for the one using the application. This result will be complemented in the future, with a second analysis of variables, to determine the relationship between the elements of the virtual games and the effectiveness of the achieved learning.