Relatability & Belonging in Game ON
Game ON is a children’s book created to encourage resilience in our young ones.
Learn about relatability and belonging in Game ON below
The characters in Game ON were designed to relate to the children, the different aspects of their personality and the actions that unfold throughout story time. It should be noted that the concept of relatability is not so much a character of resilience, however more a process that helps the children to connect with the book which in turns facilitates learning.
Piloting of this program revealed that children could relate to more than one character in the story. Engaging with, and connecting to the characters allows children to identify with the context of the story and the behaviour associated with the characters, which, in turn, facilitates learning. As indicated by the pilot study, most children reading Game ON identify with Dusty and Alex, the main characters in the book, regardless of their gender. However, other children were also able to relate to Bella, Reina, Macca and Wagner. The dialogue that children exhibit as part of the connection through the characters can provide a powerful insight into the lives of children, which enables adults to gain insight into how children may be affected in situations of conflict and aggression. When children can talk about why and how they relate to a specific character, it can open up a very important dialogue with peers and mentors, which can then assist with solving a problem if required. From a learning and protective perspective, it is just as important to understand the needs of those children who feel suppressed, isolated and scared in tense situations as it is to understand the aggressor. Game ON provides this ability to gain a broad-spectrum view of the different scenarios unfolding for each character when conversing with Alex. This aspect provides value for all the characters and their experiences from a learning perspective within this story. Game ON, through relatability and belongingness, was designed to enable children to relate, engage and learn.
