A study on the design of literacy toy for children with parent-child interactions

Abstract

Through semi-structured in-depth interviews, this study summarizes children’s main requirements in three areas: literacy methods, literacy vehicles, and parent-child interactions. The results of the in-depth interviews were combined with the theoretical research. Fifteen user requirements were extracted and made into a KANO model questionnaire, which identified 13 valuable user requirements for children’s literacy toys and prioritized the 13 effective user requirements; the AHP method was introduced to calculate the weights of the effective user requirements and derive the ranking of the requirements; the quality house model was established based on the QFD quality function configuration theory, and the user requirements were transformed into the design elements and the relative importance was calculated; the relative importance was referenced; the relative importance was calculated based on the QFD quality function configuration theory; and the relative importance was referenced to the design elements. Based on the QFD quality function configuration theory, a quality house model is established to transform user requirements into design elements and calculate the relative importance; the design practice of parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy is completed with reference to the design elements with high relative importance; a children’s literacy app is tested against the children’s literacy toys and the children’s literacy toys are evaluated in terms of the efficiency of literacy, interest in literacy, and subjective evaluation, so as to validate the feasibility of the design.

Introduction

Background of the study

Preschool education is the beginning of education for the whole of life and an integral part of basic education. Recognizing Chinese characters is one of the main tasks of the preschool stage, and it is also something that preschoolers inevitably need to learn. Literacy initiation in preschool not only lays the foundation for literacy education in the classroom from kindergarten to elementary school, but also facilitates the development of children’s intellectual capacity. Children who begin to learn to read and write in preschool tend to do better in all subjects after entering elementary school than those who don’t. Literacy initiation at preschool age does have a positive effect on the development of children’s literacy, reading, writing and expressive skills as they enter school, as well as increasing children’s confidence in learning.

Toys play a very important role in children’s physiological and psychological development. Children gain perception by observing, touching and playing with toys, and toys are also important vehicles for opening children’s understanding of the physical world. At the same time, toys can also become an important medium of language and emotional communication between parents and children through the interactions between parents and children. Due to their rich playability, toys produce a wealth of fun and often attract children’s attention and interest. Therefore, combining toys with children’s literacy can often be fun and educational, which is important for the improvement of preschool children’s literacy as well as the enhancement of parent-child emotional connection through literacy.

Research review

Research on children’s literacy

According to Montessori¹, a famous child educator, the period before the age of 6 is a sensitive period for young children’s learning, and children between the ages of 3 and 6 are naturally capable of word learning. Albert Bandura’s² research results show that for children aged 3–6, memorization is a physiological need rather than a psychological burden, and that mistakes made during this period can never be compensated for. Isao Ishii³, a renowned Japanese expert in Chinese characters research, practiced teaching Chinese characters in kindergartens from 1968 and found that the IQ of children who were taught Chinese characters increased significantly, which is why he called Chinese characters education “Chinese characters that inspire intelligence”.

Parents also play a significant role in influencing children’s literacy. Laura E. Hume et al.⁴ concluded that children’s interest in literacy and parental literacy practices are very closely related in their study of a sample of 909 children and the newly developed “Children’s Activity Preference Checklist”. Livija Knaflič⁵ conducted a study on 846 children’s parents and concluded that the most influential variable in children’s literacy education was the level of parental education. Nutbrown Cathy et al.⁶ and Curt Dudley Marling⁷ suggested that the role of the family and parents in children’s literacy was pivotal in the 20th century England, respectively. Alison E. Baroody and Jennifer Dobbs-Oates⁸ examined 61 preschool children’s literacy interest in relation to parental and child characteristics and concluded that positive child behaviors and child literacy interest were related to parents’ desired characteristics.

Research on interactive toys for parents and children

In terms of theoretical research, Eric W. Lindsey and Jacquelyn Mize⁹. believe that parents will use more indirect speech during parent-child play to enhance their children’s speech. The value of parent-child play has been verified by many parties, and the famous ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle has drawn many conclusions through research. He once pointed out that “children can better understand the current world through play.” MacDonald, K. and Parke, R. D¹⁰. conducted a study on the feedback of kindergarten teachers and believed that children who played regular games with their parents not only had various ways of communicating with their peers, but also had good effects, which fully demonstrated their strong social communication ability. Sum Kwing Cheung¹¹ et al. randomly divided 88 kindergarten children and their parents into a play group with parental training, a play group without parental training, an exercise book group, and a control group. After 4 weeks of follow - up, it was found that both groups of children whose parents were involved in the game had high numeracy skills and interest in math learning, which showed the benefits of parent-child interactions on children’s development. Seokyeong et al.¹² compared children’s interest in literacy and the effects of interactive parent-child literacy toys on children’s literacy, and the results proved that parent-child literacy interactions have an impact on children’s literacy skills and concluded that there are factors that need to be considered to improve children’s literacy skills.

In terms of toy design, Chen, X.L¹³ studied the parent-child relationship from three perspectives: children, adults, and toys, and discussed parents’ involvement in parent-child interactions and the connection they establish with their parents and children, and finally designed a parent-child toy. Sun, X.Y. and Wang Z.W¹⁴. designed a child-centered parent-child toy based on six design principles. Zhou B.J¹⁵. start from the basic concepts needed for interactive communication, analyzes some basic functions and design requirements needed for children’s interactive communication, and discusses in depth about the product design methods to improve the design level of interactive toys and create products that are recognized by consumers in the market. While bringing joy to children, such toys also allow them to develop healthily.

Research on literacy toys

Gamification refers to the integration of game elements, mechanics, and design concepts into non-game activities or scenarios in order to stimulate the interest, engagement, and motivation of participants and make them more actively engaged. In the context of children’s literacy, gamification aims to transform literacy, a learning task, into a fun and interactive experience. Lestari Maya¹⁶ proposed to use the mode of Montessori games to explore children’s literacy ability. Literacy is not just about simple literacy, but also related to children’s reading and digital culture. Karina Matheus Dos Santos and Monique Stahnke¹⁷ studied the indispensable position of the digital world in the field of children’s literacy, which also greatly stimulated children’s curiosity and interest and promoted the process of children’s learning Chinese characters.

Research methods and objectives

Research methods

This research comprehensively uses a variety of case study methods to achieve research objectives.

• ① User interview method: By asking parents’ views on preschool children’s literacy, problems they encountered, literacy methods and suggestions on literacy toys, we can comprehensively understand the actual needs of target user groups for children’s literacy toys.

• ② KANO model method: Combining the results of previous theoretical research and in-depth interviews, extract user needs and make KANO model questionnaires. After the questionnaire was collected, the data were sorted out and analyzed to determine the classification of user needs and satisfaction coefficient, and to screen out valuable and effective demand points and sort them.

• ③ Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) : According to the attributes of KANO model, a hierarchical analysis model is constructed for the design of children’s literacy toys based on parent-child interaction. Invite experts to interview and score, and use 1–9 scale method to compare and evaluate the importance of each user’s needs at the same level. The geometric average method is used to calculate the weight of each level of indicators, and the CR value is tested for consistency, and the comprehensive weight and ranking of each demand indicator are obtained.

• ④ QFD quality function allocation method: Based on the user needs and weights determined by AHP, the QFD theory is used to establish the House of quality model. Experts in the field of product design are invited to score the correlation between user needs and technical elements, build the framework of the House of quality, calculate and sort the final target technical weights, and clarify the design direction.

• ⑤ Controlled experiment method: After designing a spelling children’s literacy toy, kindergarten children who had not been exposed to experimental materials were selected as the objects, and a children’s literacy app was used as the control. From three angles of literacy efficiency, literacy interest and subjective evaluation, this paper compares the effect of children using literacy toys and apps to learn new words of the same difficulty, and verifies the usability and effectiveness of the design of literacy toys.

The research process can be explained in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

The Process of the Research.

As can be seen from Fig. 1, the case study is divided into four stages, each of which takes different approaches. The research questions at each step are sorted out and the corresponding research methods are listed in Table 1.

Table 1 The research questions and the corresponding research methods at each step.

Research objectives

The purpose of this study is to deeply explore the needs of children and parents in parent-child interactive children’s literacy toys through the above-mentioned case study methods, and accurately transform user needs into specific design elements. Through the design practice, a parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy is created, and it is comprehensively evaluated from the three perspectives of literacy efficiency, literacy interest and subjective evaluation through a controlled experiment to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the design. At the same time, the integrated method adopted in this study is expected to provide new research ideas for the design and development of children’s products in the future, and promote the development of this field. The research structure is shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

The Structure of the Research.

Methodology

KANO model

KANO model, proposed by professor Noriaki Kano of Tokyo Institute of Technology, is a tool used to analyze the impact of user needs on user satisfaction¹⁸. It is often used in the process of product design and development to identify different types of user needs.

The first step in the KANO model analysis process is to create a KANO questionnaire based on the demands results of the user research, to investigate the degree of user preference for various aspects of children’s literacy toys in terms of form and function. In the questionnaire design process, two questions are set for each demand point, positive and negative, respectively, to test the user’s attitude when they think there is this demand and there is no such demand, and in the design of the answer, five degrees of options are used, respectively: like it very much, it should be so, it doesn’t matter, reluctantly accept it, and don’t like it, and the user can choose the answer of the positive and negative questions according to the feeling of the demands, respectively¹⁹. The KANO model questionnaire form is shown in Table 2.

Table 2 KANO model questionnaire form.

Then, the obtained KANO questionnaire data are summarized, and the user requirements are classified according to the classification of KANO evaluation results in Table 3. Among them, O is the One-dimensional requirement, M is the Must-be requirement, A is the Attractive requirement, R is the Reverse requirement, I is the Indifferent requirement, and Q is the Questionable requirement²⁰.

Table 3 Classification of KANO evaluation results.

In addition to the study of KANO attribute attribution, the Better-Worse coefficient can also be calculated by the percentage of attributes categorized for a feature, which is used to indicate the extent to which a feature can increase the impact of liking it very much or eliminate the impact of disliking it²¹. Better (SI) refers to the value of user satisfaction with a certain demand when that demand is met. The greater the value, the higher the user’s satisfaction with the demand, and the subsequent product functions can be realized with this demand. The range of Better (SI) is generally between 0 and 1. Worse (DSI) refers to a decrease in user satisfaction after a requirement is not provided²².

The formula is as follows:

$${\text{Better }}\left( {{\text{SI}}} \right){\text{ }}={\text{ }}\left( {{\text{A}}\,+\,{\text{O}}} \right)/\left( {{\text{A}}\,+\,{\text{O}}\,+\,{\text{M}}\,+\,{\text{I}}} \right),$$

(1)

$${\text{Worse }}\left( {{\text{DSI}}} \right){\text{ }}={\text{ }} - {\text{1}}*\left( {{\text{O}}\,+\,{\text{M}}} \right)/\left( {{\text{A}}\,+\,{\text{O}}\,+\,{\text{M}}\,+\,{\text{I}}} \right).$$

(2)

Therefore, according to the Better-Worse coefficient, requirements with higher absolute values of the coefficient should be prioritized for implementation.

AHP method

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a multi-criterion decision analysis method proposed by American operations research scientist Thomas L. Saaty in the early 1970s. It decomposes complex problems into multiple component factors, and groups these factors into a hierarchical structure according to the dominance and subordination relationship. By comparing the relative importance of each factor, a judgment matrix is established, and then the weight of each factor is calculated to provide a quantitative basis for decision making²³.

The research steps of AHP method are as follows: (1) According to the attribute division obtained by Kano model, Must-be requirements(M), One-dimensional requirements(O) and Attractive requirements(A) are set into the criterion layer, and the corresponding user requirements are filled into the sub-criterion layer to build a hierarchical analysis model; (2) After expert interviews, a judgment matrix is constructed, and experts are invited to score, and the importance of each user demand at the same level is compared, evaluated and assigned. The 1–9 scale method is adopted for scoring²⁴; (3) Introduce the geometric mean method to calculate the weights of indicators at each level; (4) The consistency test of the results was carried out by CR value to ensure the matrix compatibility and the consistency of thinking when the scorer filled it in²⁵.

User requirements transformation based on QFD theory

QFD, also known as quality house, is a multilevel deductive analysis method proposed by Japanese scholar Yoji Akao in the 1960s, which is a customer-driven product development method. The advantage of QFD is to establish the mapping relationship between user requirements and design elements by understanding user requirements, and clarify the characteristics and quality of products at the source, so as to enhance users’ satisfaction with products²⁶.

The specific research steps are as follows: (1) Input the user demands and the corresponding demands weights in the index layer of AHP into the “left wall” of the House of Quality; (2) Input the evaluation and quality plan objectives of parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy into the “right wall” of the House of Quality; (3) Convert the demands into technical elements of specific parent - child interactive children’s literacy toys through QFD; (4) Invite experts in the field of product design to score the correlation between user requirements and technical elements, take the average value and fill in the room of the House of quality to build the framework of the house of Quality²⁷; (5) Fill in the degree of correlation of each technical requirement into the “eaves”; (6) Multiply the score of each design element with the comprehensive weight of the corresponding index layer, calculate the final target technology weight and fill it into the “basement” part, and rank its importance²⁸ to clarify the design direction of the subsequent parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy. The House of quality model is shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

Quality and Safety House Model.

User requirements analysis and design basis of parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy

User requirements extraction

User interviews

Contents of user interviews

In order to understand the situation of children’s literacy in each family and parents’ requirements for literacy products, five parents with different ages and identities from children’s families of different ages and genders in a kindergarten in Suqian City, Jiangsu Province were selected for in - depth interviews to ensure the credibility and diversity of the sample. The interviews were recorded by means of audio, video, photographs and key - information recording, and all user portraits and audio and video recordings were made with the permission of the interviewees.

The core of the interviews began with an exploration of parents’ perceptions of preschoolers’ literacy, followed by questions about whether parents had experienced problems with children’s literacy and what they considered more reasonable approaches to literacy. Then targeted questions about the parent-child interactions of the way to read, the way to read the software and the view of the literacy toys. The following six points were finalized as the outline of the interviews:

• ① What do you think or understand about preschool literacy?

• ② Have you encountered any problems after you began to consciously introduce your child to Chinese characters (you can elaborate on your child’s interest, the process of literacy, and the efficiency of literacy)?

• ③ Are there any impressive patterns, methods, or ancillary products in your child’s literacy process?

• ④ What are your views on parent-child participation and interactions in literacy education?

• ⑤ How do you feel about the fact that many parents are now using literacy programs on electronic devices such as iPads to make their preschoolers literate?

• ⑥ If toys are used to teach or enlighten preschool children, what are your views or suggestions?

Analysis of interview results

After conducting in-depth interviews with the above five families, the content of the interviews was extracted and the key information needed was sorted out. The interview summaries were mainly discussed according to the key points of the interview outline, and the valid information in the interview process was recorded. The results of the interviews were presented in the form of summaries of the interviewees’ responses, and the unimportant interview information and responses were directly eliminated, and valid conclusions were drawn, as shown in Table 4.

Table 4 Summary of valid information and answers from the interview”.

Summary of interview results

In-depth interviews were conducted to understand the actual requirements of the target user group for the product. As the questions raised by parents were informative and of some complexity, the questions raised by users were distilled. They are shown in Table 5 below.

Table 5 Analysis of interview and investigation conclusions”.

Through the keyword extraction of user questions, it is found that current children’s literacy toys have certain problems from the selection of literacy methods, to the process of using them, as well as the interactions between parents and children through literacy toys. If these problems are not solved, it will seriously affect the literacy education of preschool children and reduce children’s enthusiasm and interest in literacy.

Analysis of user requirements

KANO questionnaire design

By summarizing the results of previous theoretical research and in-depth interviews, it is found that there are three problems in the aspects of literacy methods, literacy vehicles, and parent-child interactions. These problem points are transformed into requirements for subsequent design guidance in and reference for. Finally, 15 demand points are converted into the KANO questionnaire, which is used to investigate parents’ satisfaction with children’s literacy toys. The problem demands transformation content is shown in Table 6.

Table 6 Elements of problem demands transformation.

After the transformation of questions into requirements, the questionnaire of KANO model is designed. The contents of the questionnaire are mainly 15 contents of demands transformation. Finally, the questions are set with these 15 contents as the center, and two questions are set respectively for each content, in order to investigate users’ satisfaction with requirements from two aspects. At the same time, in the setting of answers, five degrees of answer options are given for different questions for users to choose.

KANO questionnaire results and data analysis

After the questionnaire content design was completed, a kindergarten in Suqian, which was the original research, was still chosen as the sample source, but another class was replaced, and two classes were selected for each grade, for a total of six classes of parents to carry out the questionnaire distribution of KANO requirements. During this period, 174 samples were collected, all of which were valid, with a recovery rate of 100%.

After the questionnaires were collected, the data were sorted out. 174 valid questionnaires were sorted out according to the classification table of KANO evaluation results, and the user satisfaction coefficient corresponding to each question was calculated. The calculation method of satisfaction coefficient is to calculate Better (SI) and Worse (DSI) according to the general formula of better-worse coefficient mentioned above, and get the user satisfaction coefficient of children’s literacy toys. Within the formula rules of Better (SI) and Worse (DSI), with 0.5 as the defining value, when Better > 0.5 and |Worse|>0.5, this demand can be categorized as an aspirational demand; when Better > 0.5 and |Worse|<0.5, this demand can be categorized as an excitatory demand. When Better < 0.5 and |Worse|<0.5, the demands can be categorized as a non-differentiated demands; when better < 0.5 and |Worse|>0.5, the demands can be categorized as a basic demand.

According to the KANO evaluation results classification table and Better-Worse coefficient calculation and analysis, we can basically derive the parents for children’s literacy toys user demands point classification and satisfaction coefficient, as shown in Table 7.

Table 7 Classification of user demand points and satisfaction coefficients of children’s literacy toys”.

Based on the KANO modeling analysis, the 15 user requirements include 8 Must-be requirements(M), 3 One-dimensional requirements(O), 2 Attractive requirements(A), and 2 Indifferent requirements(I). Since the reference value of undifferentiated requirements is not significant, 2 indifferent requirements are deleted, totaling 13 valid requirement points.

Calculate user requirement weights based on AHP

A hierarchical analysis model with the theme of parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy was constructed, with the target layer being parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy design, the criterion layer being the Must-be requirements(M), One-dimensional requirements(O) and Attractive requirements(A), and the sub-criterion layer being the corresponding 13 user requirements. In order to ensure the professionalism and usability of the calculated weighting results, five product - design - related people were invited to fill in the results. The weighting results were calculated using the geometric mean method. Then, a consistency test was performed on the matrix scoring. The maximum eigenvalue of the criterion layer was λmax = 3.092, and the CR value was 0.0088 < 0.1. Similarly, the corresponding weight values of the indicators of the sub-criterion layer were obtained, and the CR values were all less than 0.1, and through the consistency test, the calculated values of each indicator of the sub-criterion layer were calculated as the corresponding user requirements. consistency test, the comprehensive weights of each demand indicator are calculated and ranked, as shown in Table 8.

Table 8 Weights of user requirements”.

Transforming user requirements based on QFD theory

Based on the hierarchical analysis model of AHP, the indicator level requirements are transformed into the design elements of parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy, as shown in Table 9, and each indicator level has corresponding design elements to support the corresponding requirements.

Table 9 Conversion results of user requirements into design elements”.

Based on the results of user requirements-design elements conversion, using the research steps of QFD theory, experts in the field of product design were invited to score the correlation between the left user requirements and the upper design elements on the correlation between the user requirements and the functional structure, in which the correlation degree is divided into three levels of correlation, strong, medium and weak, which are indicated by “●”, “○” and “□”, with corresponding scores of 5, 3 and 1 respectively. After taking the average value and filling in the quality house room section, the target technology weights were derived and ranked by combining the user requirement weights²⁹. Table 10 shows the quality house model table for parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy.

Table 10 Quality house model table.

Table 10 shows that the relative importance of quality characteristics is d10> d2> d9> d3> d6> d1> d5> d4 > d7 > d8. According to the results, it can be seen that the design of parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy should be prioritized to achieve multiple ways to reinforce learning, fun, development of children’s potential, and parent-child interactivity, Secondly, it should meet the requirements of vivid pattern, scientificity of the word bank, color harmony, ease of operation, and the font is large and clear, and finally ensure the safety on the basis of meeting the above design elements. Based on this, the design practice of parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy is carried out.

Design practice

Design introduction

The design is a spelling - pattern - based children’s literacy toy. Each word list puzzle has 20 empty squares with a different Chinese character in each square, taken from a different Chinese character list of a certain level; there are gaps in the middle of the puzzle for insertion of inserts. The puzzle comes with 20 transparent acrylic blocks corresponding to the Chinese characters on the puzzle, which can be embedded in the grid of the puzzle. Two pieces can be inserted in the middle of the puzzle, which are pictographic Chinese characters and stroke radicals, as shown in Fig. 4 below.

Fig. 4

A spelling pattern of children’s literacy toy.

Functionality

Introduction of literacy functions

The literacy toy enables children to learn intensively in many ways through a variety of literacy modes. There are several literacy modes for children:

• ① Matching identical Chinese characters: Find the same Chinese character blocks corresponding to the Chinese character in each grid (Fig. 5). When children are initially exposed to new word list blocks, they can try to put the blocks together themselves according to the corresponding Chinese character in the word list to build up an initial impression of the Chinese character glyphs, as well as to exercise their thinking and hands-on skills.

  Fig. 5

  

  Introduction of the “matching identical Chinese characters " function.

• ② Guessing the Characters by Looking at the Pictures: Children should correspond their understanding of the graphical Chinese character to find the corresponding Chinese character (Fig. 6). After completing the training in step ①, a preliminary impression of the Chinese characters is created. After that, parents can explain to their children one by one according to the meaning of Chinese characters and combined with graphic Chinese characters, and guide them to find the corresponding word block puzzle. After teaching, the puzzle can be disrupted so that the child can find the corresponding Chinese character according to the understanding of each graphical Chinese character, and can be practiced over and over again.

  Fig. 6

  

  Introduction of “guessing the characters by looking at the pictures” function.

• ③ Deducing Chinese characters through their strokes/ radicals: Correspond to the strokes/ radicals of a Chinese character to find the corresponding Chinese character (Fig. 7). Upon the completion of step ① and ②, the child will have an initial impression of the shape of the Chinese character and understand the meaning of the character to deepen his/her understanding. At this point, parents can further explain the structure, strokes, and radicals of each Chinese character to their children, so that they can understand the order or composition of the Chinese characters and enhance their knowledge of their glyphs. After teaching, the acrylic blocks can be disrupted, and the children can find the corresponding Chinese characters according to the stroke or radicals, and can practice repeatedly.

  Fig. 7

  

  Introduction of the “deducing Chinese characters through their strokes/ radicals” function.

Introduction of parent-child interaction functions

• (1) Verbal interactions: ① Parents learn about the strokes, radicals, graphical Chinese characters and the original interpretations of the Chinese characters in the graded character list for preschoolers, and then teach this knowledge to children verbally, so that the children can learn about various aspects of the Chinese characters. ② After receiving instruction from parents, children can learn and deepen their impression by using literacy toys. They can also constantly review to deepen their memory. However, when they forget some contents, parents need to take the initiative to ask and provide answers. When the child asks a question or receives feedback that the child has made a mistake when reviewing, the parent can once again reinforce the child’s knowledge of the corresponding Chinese character through verbal instruction.

• (2) Behavioral interactions: ① Parents guide the child to use the cards by demonstrating the operation, and the child can use the cards independently after being guided. ② Parents can take any piece of word list to test the child and choose any side of the insert to test different contents; when the child finishes, the parents can pull out the word list and get information feedback immediately to correct the mistakes in time. ③Children can also take the initiative to let their parents take the initiative to test their stage-by-stage learning results. After the parents set the questions, the children will complete the answers independently and pull out the inserts to verify the right or wrong and show their learning results to their parents.

Controlled experiments

Aim of the study

In order to test the usability of the design of the parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy, a children’s literacy app was used to conduct a controlled experiment. This paper analyzes the differences between the two children’s literacy carriers in the interest of children’s literacy and the efficiency of children’s literacy, which makes the evaluation of the children’s literacy toys more scientific.

Research subjects and methods

The experiment was conducted with 10 kindergarten children (aged 3–6 years old), who were judged in terms of their interest in literacy and their efficiency in literacy. In the experimental group of 10 children, they learned 10 characters through the above - mentioned literacy toys in 15 min. In the control group of 10 children, they learned 10 characters of the same difficulty level (without repeating characters from the experimental group) through the “Baby Learning Chinese Characters” Literacy App on tablets within 15 min. We compared the learning efficiency and interest of the 10 children in the two different learning media. In order to make the control group and the experimental group learn characters with the same level of difficulty, the experimental group and the control group were set to learn 1 character with 2 strokes, 1 character with 3 strokes, 3 characters with 4 strokes, 2 characters with 5 strokes, and 3 characters with 6 strokes, respectively. Table 11 shows the contents of Chinese characters and their corresponding number of strokes in experimental and control groups.

Table 11 Contents of Chinese characters and their corresponding number of strokes in the experimental and control groups.

Specific research subjects

The subjects of this experiment were 10 children aged 3–6 years old from Yangliu Kindergarten in Jining City, Shandong Province, China. None of them had learned the Chinese characters in the experimental literacy toys and apps. The age and gender statistics of the subjects are shown in Table 12.

Table 12 Statistics of the number of subjects.

Specific experiment procedures

Experimental group design process (Fig. 8)

① Matching identical Chinese characters: After children come into contact with the word block puzzle, let children try to match the 10 word block puzzles independently according to the font, and establish a preliminary impression of the Chinese character font. The process time limit is 3 min. The time limit for this process is 3 min.

② Guessing the Characters by looking at the pictures: After getting an initial impression of the Chinese characters, the children are taught the corresponding Chinese characters one by one in conjunction with the shapes in the inserts and are guided to find the corresponding word pieces of the puzzle. When the teaching is finished, the puzzle is disrupted and the children are asked to find the corresponding Chinese character according to their understanding of the shape of each character. This process is limited to 7 min.

③ Deducing Chinese characters through their strokes/ radicals: After familiarizing children with the meaning of the characters in step ②, the structure, strokes and radicals of each character are explained to children, so that they can understand the order in which the characters are written or the way in which they are formed, and to enhance their knowledge of the shape of the characters. After this, the blocks will be shuffled and the children will be asked to find the corresponding Chinese character by splitting up the strokes or radicals. This process is limited to 5 min.

Fig. 8

Experimental process of a child in the experimental group.

④Literacy efficiency test: 10 children were tested on their learning of 10 Chinese characters. The scoring criteria were: 100 points for 10 characters, 10 points for correct answers within 2 s, 5 points for correct answers within 2–5 s, 3 points for correct answers over 5 s, and no points for wrong answers. Finally, the final scores were analyzed.

⑤ Literacy interest test: after children learn through literacy toys, children are allowed to score 1–5 points on the related situations of emotional state, concentration, and interactive positivity in the process of literacy, so as to judge the related situations of emotional state, concentration, and interactive positivity in the process of children’s literacy under the carrier of children’s literacy toys in a quantitative form. Table 13 shows the six literacy interest indicators and the corresponding scores of each indicator for the experimental group.

Table 13 Indicators of literacy interest in the experimental group and the corresponding scores for each indicator.

Fig. 9

App word recognition process.

Fig. 10

App word learning process.

Fig. 11

App practicing process.

Fig. 12

App writing process.

• ① Character Recognition: The gradual transformation of a Chinese character into the pictorial content that the character signifies, making it easy for children to memorize.

• ② Learning Characters: displaying Chinese characters in comparison with their corresponding images, and teaching word formation and sentence making for the corresponding Chinese characters.

• ③ Practice: An interactive game to find out the Chinese characters you have learned, each of which requires three Chinese characters searches to deepen your memory.

• ④ Writing: Follow the instructions on the screen to understand the order of strokes.

• ⑤ Literacy efficiency test: 10 children were tested on their learning of 10 Chinese characters. The scoring criteria were the same as those of the experimental group.

• ⑥ Literacy interest test: after the children learn through the literacy app, the children are asked to score from 1 to 5 on a scale of 1 to 5 in relation to the emotional state, concentration, and interactive positivity during the literacy process, so that the children’s emotional state, concentration, and interactive positivity during the literacy process under the children’s literacy app vehicle can be judged through quantitative forms. Table 14 shows the six literacy interest indicators and the corresponding scores for each indicator in the control group.

  Table 14 Indicators of literacy interest in the control group and corresponding scores for each indicator.

Results and analyses

Literacy efficiency scoring results

Children were tested for the Chinese characters they learned after they became literate through the literacy toys of the experimental group and the literacy app of the control group, respectively, and Table 15 shows the results of the scores of the literacy efficiency of the two groups.

Table 15 Results of literacy efficiency scores.

Each scoring parameter for the experimental and control groups reflects the distribution and degree of change in the data of the two groups with the following meanings:

• (1) Mean score: Indicating the central tendency of each group of data, which is the average level of the data. A significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups indicates that the experimental group has changed or been effective in some way. The mean score of the experimental group is 85.9 and the mean score of the control group is 79.6, which indicates that the mean of the children’s literacy toys in the experimental group is higher than the mean of the children’s literacy apps in the control group in terms of the impact on the children’s literacy efficiency.

• (2) Standard Deviation: Reflecting the degree of dispersion or dispersion of data. The larger the standard deviation, the more dispersed the data points are; the smaller the standard deviation, the more concentrated the data points are. Comparison of the standard deviation of the experimental group and the control group can show the fluctuation of the data of the two groups, and the difference may imply that there are greater individual differences in the experimental group or that the impact of the experiment is unstable. The standard deviation of the experimental group’s score was 13.3 and the standard deviation of the control group’s score was 16.5, suggesting that there was less individual variability in the impact of the children’s literacy efficiency in the experimental group for the children’s literacy toys than in the control group for the children’s literacy app.

• (3) Minimum and Maximum: Comparion of the minimum and maximum values of the experimental and control groups can show the extremes and data ranges of the two groups. The minimum value of the score of the experimental group is 58, and the maximum value is 100; the minimum value of the score of the control group is 45, and the maximum value is 95, indicating that the range of the score of the experimental group is better than the range of the score of the control group.

Literacy interest scoring results

After the children learned through the parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy of the experimental group and the literacy app of the control group, respectively, they were scored on a scale of 1–5 in relation to the emotional state, concentration, and interactivity positivity during the literacy process, and Table 16 shows the ratings of the 10 subjects on the 6 literacy interest indicators of the literacy toys of the children of the experimental group, and Table 17 shows the ratings of the 10 subjects on the 6 literacy interest indicators of the children’s literacy app of the control group.

Table 16 Literacy interest indicator scores for the experimental group.

Table 17 Literacy interest Indicator scores for control group.

Non-parametric tests were utilized to investigate the differences between the experimental and control groups for a total of six items: emotional state 1, emotional state 2, concentration 1, concentration 2, interactive positivity 1, interactive positivity 2. The two groups, the experimental and the control, were thus scored using the MannWhitney test statistic.

Table 18 Results of Non-Parametric tests.

As can be seen from Table 18: The four literacy interest indicators of “emotional state 1”, “concentration 1”, “concentration 2” and “interactive positivity 1” were not significant among samples from different groups (p > 0.05), which means that samples from different groups showed consistency in “emotional state 1”, “concentration 1”, “concentration 2” and “interactive positivity 1”. In addition, the group samples showed significant literacy interest indicators of “emotional state 2” and “interactive positivity 2” (p < 0.05), which means that the experimental group and the control group have differences in “emotional state 2” and “interactive positivity 2”. Specific analysis showed that the group showed 0.05 level of significance for “emotional state 2” (p = 0.028 < 0.05), and the specific comparison median difference showed that the median of the experimental group (5.000) was significantly higher than that of the control group (4.000). The group showed 0.05 level significance for “interactive positivity 2” (p = 0.028 < 0.05), and the specific comparison median difference showed that the median of the experimental group (5.000) was significantly higher than that of the control group (4.000).

Therefore, an independent sample t-test was conducted to analyze whether there was any difference between the experimental group and the control group in terms of the two scores of “emotional state 2” and “interactive positivity 2”³⁰. The independent samples t-test was conducted to analyze whether the experimental group and the control group samples were different for the two scores of “emotional state 2” and “interactive positivity 2”. Table 19 shows the results of independent samples t-test.

Table 19 Independent samples T - Test results.

As can be seen from Table 19, the groups showed a 0.05 level of significance (t = 2.466, p = 0.024) for “Emotional State 2”, and the difference in the specific comparisons shows that the mean value of the experimental group (4.70) is significantly higher than the mean value of the control group (4.20). Groups showed a 0.05 level of significance (t = 2.466, p = 0.024) for “interactive positivity 2”, as well as specific comparative differences, with the experimental group’s mean (4.80) being significantly higher than the control group’s mean (4.30).

It can be seen from this that samples of different groups all showed significant effects on “emotional state 2” and “interactive positivity 2” (p < 0.05), which means that the experimental group and the control group have differences in “emotional state 2” and “interactive positivity 2”.

Subjective evaluation analyses

After the subjects learned through the children’s literacy toys and the children’s literacy app, an open - ended Q&A session was conducted. The children’s perspectives on the design elements were then condensed and analyzed. Table 20 shows the analyses of subjective evaluations.

Table 20 Analyses of subjective evaluations.

Study conclusions

In terms of literacy efficiency: 1. In terms of literacy efficiency: (1) The average literacy - efficiency level of the parent - child interactive children’s literacy toy was higher than that of children using literacy apps. (2) The individual variability of children using the parent - child interactive children’s literacy toy was lower than that of children using literacy apps. (3) The range of children’s scores of those using the parent - child interactive children’s literacy toy was superior to that of children using literacy apps.

In terms of literacy interest: Children’s literacy interest indicators for “Emotional State 2” and “Interactive Positivity 2” varied between the parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy and literacy app literacy vehicles, and children’s literacy interest indicators were higher in the literacy toy vehicle than in the literacy app vehicle. The mean values of these indicators were higher in the literacy toy vehicle than in the literacy app vehicle.

In terms of the subjective evaluation of the children: The parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy, compared with the children’s literacy apps in the control group, is more capable of realizing multiple ways to strengthen learning, developing children’s potential, and meeting the requirements of parent-child interactions. In the process of optimizing the parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy, we can optimize them in terms of the vividness of patterns and the convenience of storage.

Discussion

As the cornerstone of basic education, literacy is very important for children’s enlightenment education, intellectual development and learning habit formation, so the research and design of literacy methods and products have broad prospects. Literacy products with toys as the carrier, integrating education and entertainment, stimulate children’s interest in learning, promote parent-child interaction, let children learn in happiness, exercise a variety of abilities. This study focuses on parent-child interactive children’s literacy toys, and conducts in-depth exploration in the aspects of user demand analysis, design practice and evaluation. Compared with existing literature and cases, it has the following characteristics and improvement directions.

Comparison and perspectives of research methods

This research innovatively integrates the KANO model, AHP method and QFD theory to build the system design process. KANO model accurately classifies user needs, AHP method determines weights, and QFD theory transforms needs into design elements, providing comprehensive and orderly guidance for children’s literacy toy design. Although AHP is effective in prioritizing requirements, similar studies have shown that methods such as Best-worst scaling (BWS) and MaxDiff can also be more concise and robust in the user needs analysis process. BWS directly reflects the user’s preferences through the selection of the best and worst attributes³¹; MaxDiff provides researchers with a clear insight into the importance of requirements in a way that maximizes differentiation³². These methods provide a new way to optimize the priority of requirements.

Advantages and disadvantages of literacy toy design

The spelling - pattern literacy toy designed in this study integrates various literacy and parent - child interaction functions. It has achieved remarkable results in improving children’s literacy efficiency and interest. Moreover, it has certain advantages in meeting children’s literacy and parent - child interaction needs. However, there is a gap between the scientific character database selection and frontier cases. In order to maximize literacy efficiency, the scientific screening of the word library should be based on the word - frequency coverage of children’s books. The quantity, type, and order of words should be determined in combination with the literacy foundation, objectives, and purposes. Although this research acknowledges the necessity of scientific screening, in practice, the scientificity and perfection of this link needs to be improved.

Considerations and implications of design evaluation

This study selected 10 kindergarten children for the experiment, which, to a certain extent, reflected the effect of the product. Compared with large-scale sample studies, a small sample size affects the accuracy and universality of research results from the perspective of case comparison. Large samples can cover more situations and yield more generalizable conclusions. The limited sample size of this study may make the results less representative of the general population. Although the limitations are detailed in Chap. 7, the impact of sample size on results is highlighted here through case comparisons, emphasizing the importance of reasonable sample size in design evaluation.

To sum up, this study has made progress in the field of parent-child interactive children’s literacy toy design. Through comparison with literature and cases, the improvement direction of research methods, character database screening and sample size has been clarified, providing reference for subsequent research.

Limitations

Limitations of the applicable scope of Language and culture

This study focuses on the cultivation of Chinese literacy and Chinese character literacy. Different languages have different writing systems, pronunciation rules and cultural connotations. For example, Pinyin characters and Chinese characters are completely different in structure and learning methods. Therefore, the toys and methods designed for Chinese character literacy can not be directly applied to other language learning, which limits its popularization in a wider range of language and culture fields.

Limitations of long-term effect studies

At present, the study only evaluated the literacy efficiency and interest of children using literacy toys and literacy apps through controlled trials in the short term. The development of children’s literacy is a long-term process, and the short-term effect cannot accurately reflect the long-term stability and sustainability. The long-term test can observe children’s adaptation to literacy toys at different growth stages, the consolidation and transfer of learning effect and the long-term influence on comprehensive literacy ability. The lack of long-term research leads to a lack of understanding of the mechanism of action of literacy toys in the whole process of children’s literacy development, and it is difficult to fully evaluate its long-term value and potential impact.

Limitations of the design evaluation sample

In the design evaluation stage, only 10 kindergarten children were selected as subjects, and the small sample size brought many problems. From a statistical point of view, a small sample size reduces the statistical power, making it difficult to detect subtle but important differences between the experimental group and the control group, which may ignore the effects and problems in the practical application of literacy toys, and fail to accurately evaluate their effectiveness. At the same time, small samples are easily affected by individual differences, resulting in unstable statistical results and difficult to reflect the overall characteristics. In addition, it is difficult for 10 children to fully represent the large and diverse population of preschool children. Children from different regions, family backgrounds and personality characteristics have great differences in their responses to and needs for literacy toys, and a small sample cannot cover such diversity, limiting the application of research results to a wider group of children.

Summary

This study aims to explore the needs of children and parents, and design and verify the feasibility of parent-child interactive children’s literacy toys. Through the comprehensive use of a variety of methods, successfully achieve the goal and solve the relevant problems.

In terms of demand analysis, through in-depth interviews and theoretical research, 15 user needs are extracted from literacy methods, carriers and parent-child interaction. After KANO model analysis, 13 effective needs are selected, the weights are determined by AHP, and then the QFD theory is applied to transform them into design elements and sort them. It is clear that the design should give priority to multiple ways of reinforcement learning and fun, etc., which lays a foundation for the design.

In the design practice, according to the results of demand analysis, a spelling pattern literacy toy is created. It has both the function of literacy and parent-child interaction, helps children strengthen learning through a variety of literacy modes, and promotes parent-child communication through speech and behavior interaction, so as to meet the needs of children’s literacy and parent-child interaction.

The controlled experiment compared the toy with the literacy app in 10 kindergarten children. The results showed that the average level of toys was higher, the individual difference was smaller, and the score range was better. In terms of literacy interest, toys performed better in “emotional state 2” and “interactive positivity 2”; The subjective evaluation also shows that toys have more advantages in realizing multi-mode reinforcement learning, developing children’s potential and satisfying parent-child interaction needs, thus verifying the effectiveness of the design.

This study uses the integrated method of Kano-AHP-QFD to provide a new idea for children’s product design, and the controlled test enhances the scientific evaluation. Although there are limited research objects, character database screening to be optimized, small sample size and other limitations, it is of great significance to promote the development of parent-child interactive children’s literacy toys, and subsequent research can be improved on this basis.