Playing Games on the Screen: Adapting Mouse Interaction at Early Ages

Technology is changing the way today’s children learn. Based on our experience in the development of educational software for children, it is our belief that computer interaction should consider the factors that affect children´s cognitive abilities and take an active part in the realm of the methodological process of hypermedia design. Departing from the results of a preliminary study with pre-school children, serious difficulties regarding mouse interaction when playing computer games are detected, mainly in the movements requiring more complex psychomotor abilities, such as double click and interactions leading to dragging the cursor. The evaluation reports on the need to adapt the mouse interaction to children´s cognitive development, from point-and-click to drag-and-drop, and the suitability of introducing intermediate variations adapted to young learners’ needs.