Reimagening Time Management Tools for Children’s Disengagement from Games

We are currently looking for participants! If you are interested, please contact Sophie Bartholly: sophie.bartholly∂student.kit.edu

Ending game sessions is challenging for children, and parents also often struggle to manage this process. In this workshop, we will explore with your children and you what tools for ending game sessions or disengagement from games might look like if designed by children for children. Disengagement is the process and experience of reducing involvement and exiting a gaming session. We particularly want to explore how game time can be managed in line with the rules set by parents. At the same time, we want to consider how these rules can be adapted to support positive experiences when children stop playing video games. Positive disengagement is the idea that ending a play session can be a satisfying experience, rather than the result of a bad experience. This can be more difficult with games and their specific mechanics, as they may not be designed to allow you to stop at any moment. Leaving a session before reaching a satisfactory conclusion or completing the current task can lead to negative feelings, or even emotional outbursts. We want to understand the issues families and children especially face in these situations.

Our focus will be on the current habits and routines that work for families. Ideas, strategies, tools and other things that go well. Together with you, we also want to explore possible technologies that could support you and your child in disengagement situations.

The workshop will be done by children with and been conducted alongside a questionnaire done by the respective parent. The children's workshop will go as follows:

• The children will sit down with the researchers to talk about situations at home and how they or their parents usually manage disengagement. Our focus here will be on the children’s experiences and emotions.
• We will then discuss different disengagement scenarios that might arise when playing video games and ending a session, and talk to the children about how they would feel in those situations and how they would like them to be handled.
• After that, we will ask the children to take up pen and paper and draw technology solutions that would help them to end a gaming session more satisfactorily. They can draw upon things and ideas previously expressed in the workshop.
• Finally, we will discuss the drawings with the children and ask them to explain what they have drawn. The workshop will then end. Depending on how smoothly we transition between activities, the workshop should take between 45 minutes and one hour.
• Parents can then collect their children.

Meanwhile, the parents will be doing the following:

• Parents will be given a consent form and a questionnaire. They will need to complete the consent form before the workshop starts.
• Parents will then be able to sit down and complete the questionnaire, which consists of multiple choice, one-word and long-form answer questions. This should take approximately 15–20 minutes.
• After the children’s workshop has ended, they can come and collect their child.

Who can participate:

Registration and scheduling takes place via email: sophie.bartholly∂student.kit.edu