Early Literacy Skills in Digital Games

Abstract

Early literacy skills, the basis of literacy skills, can be introduced to children through various stimuli and are supported by digital games with the increasing use of technology. This study aims to investigate the games children can download from the Play Store, which has high accessibility and allows them to play offline many times, regarding early literacy skills. In this context, 183 digital games for children that can be played offline were identified in the Play Store. The download rates of these games were analysed, and the 30 digital games with the highest number of downloads (games with over 50 million downloads) were identified, and these games were downloaded and played. Then, the researchers created the ‘Early Literacy Skills in Digital Games Evaluation Form’ to examine the games' early literacy skills. These games were analysed using a content analysis method. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the least common early literacy skills in digital games were alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness. The most common early literacy skills were print awareness (limited to sentences and instructions in the games and object naming) and listening comprehension skills. Receptive vocabulary was the most common early literacy skill in the digital games analysed. In addition, no activity to support expressive vocabulary knowledge was found in any of the games analysed. This research assesses the role of digital games in early literacy and provides insights for improving educational technology and game design.