Using an Edugame to Develop Socio-Emotional and Perspective-Taking Skills at School

Abstract

Both low-perspective taking and empathy skills and high levels of anxiety among pupils are risk factors for bullying, social isolation, educational failure, and school drop-out. As confirmed by multiple studies, these factors may also bring out special educational needs. For this reason, it is essential to adopt didactic devices, such as edugames, useful for developing these skills and to specifically ensure everyone's active participation. Therefore, the paper will present the results of a study aimed at investigating the relationship between PT and anxiety levels in school-aged children through the adoption of an edugame prototype and the screening for child anxiety-related emotional disorders to measure and enhance these skills in pupils with high levels of anxiety.