Fight Obesity app: a proof-of-concept prototype of mobile game-based treatment
Wang Yanzhen1, Tan, Wee Hoe2, Maizatul Hayati Mohamad Yatim3.
This paper presents how a mobile game was designed and developed in an
education research laboratory as a proof-of-concept for treating obesity
in preschool children. It depicts how a pediatrician cooperated with game
based learning researchers to produce a mobile app for a game based
obesity treatment. The intention of the pediatrician was to guide preschool
children between the ages of three to six years old, to understand the concept
of childhood overweight and obesity, while keeping in mind the long term
consequences of obesity, and how to choose healthy food in Malaysian daily
living contexts. The interdisciplinary cooperation between these individuals
resulted the creation of the Fight Obesity 2.0 mobile app. The mobile app has
been featured through tablet computer as a platform to gamify healthcare
education contents for toddlers and young children. The major difficulty
faced in the game production was determining the modality of multimedia
content presentation and selecting appropriate pedagogical approaches for
preschool children. This paper illustrates how the difficulty was overcome
and reflects lessons learned from the interdisciplinary cooperation. The
experience shown in the study would benefit professionals in medicine,
preschool education and game experts who are interested in initiating crossdisciplinary
cooperation for making treatment of obesity fun, engaging and
meaningful for children.
Affiliation:
- Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia
- Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia
- Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia
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