5 Child Assent Form

ATTACHMENT 5: Educational Game Focus Group: CHILD

Form Approved

OMB No. 0925-0648

Exp. Date 3/31/2018

Child Assent Script [to be read to child]

We are creating a game to help children your age learn about pediatric clinical research. We would like to talk with you and some other children in a group about the game and hear what you think about the game. Your parent(s) said it would be okay. It is okay for you not to answer some of the questions or to say that you don’t want to answer any more questions. Are you willing to be a part of this discussion?

_____________________________________ ____________________

Child’s Name (Printed) Date

Collection of this information is authorized by The Public Health Service Act, Section 411 (42 USC 285a). Rights of study participants are protected by The Privacy Act of 1974. Participation is voluntary, and there are no penalties for not participating or withdrawing from the study at any time. Refusal to participate will not affect your benefits in any way. The information collected in this study will be kept private under the Privacy Act. Names and other identifiers will not appear in any report of the study. Information provided will be combined for all study participants and reported as summaries. You are being contacted by telephone to complete this instrument so that we can determine whether you qualify to participate in a website usability study.

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 35 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to: NIH, Project Clearance Branch, 6705 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7974, Bethesda, MD 20892-7974, ATTN: PRA (0925-0648). Do not return the completed form to this address.

Children’s Focus Group

Welcome

Thank you for agreeing to talk with us today.

Your parents and teachers are also here to learn about the game, and we will talk with them later.

I’d like you to know that [observer name(s)] are here to listen and take notes. [Names], please say “Hello.” We will also record our discussion, just to make sure that we don’t miss anything you say.

We expect to talk with you for between 20 and 30 minutes.

Warmup

1. Do you like to play games on a computer or phone?

2. Do you usually play on a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or phone?

3. Do you ever play computer games at school as a way to learn? What types of games to you play? Can you describe them to me?

Game Overview

Today, we’ll be talking about an educational game that we are making for the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. I’m going to tell you about the game, show you some sketches, and ask you some questions.

The game is not finished yet. We want to hear your ideas about it to help us make sure the game is fun to play while you are learning about pediatric clinical research. Does anyone know what pediatric clinical research is? WAIT FOR RESPONSE.

DISPLAY DEFINITION OF PEDIATRIC CLINICAL RESEARCH.

Pediatric describes something for children. For example, a doctor for kids is called a [PAUSE TO SEE IF ANYONE FILLS IN THE BLANK] That’s right, a pediatrician.

The word Clinical describes something that involves patients, such as in a clinic or hospital with doctors, nurses, and other health care helpers.

Research is careful studying that you do to find and report new knowledge about something. You’ve probably already done some research in your science class at school.

So, put those three words together, and pediatric clinical research is carefully studying to find new knowledge about children in a clinic or hospital. It includes things like finding better medicines for kids who are sick or making a better vaccination to keep kids from getting sick.

Now, don’t worry. I am not testing you on what you know about pediatric clinical research. There are no wrong or right answers to the questions I’m going to ask. If you don’t want to answer a question, you do not need to say anything, but please know that whatever you do say is important and valuable to us to make our game better.

Also, don’t worry that anything you say might hurt my feelings. We really want to know what you think. In this room, YOU are the experts!

Do you have any questions for me before we begin to talk about the game?

About the Game

Have you ever thought you might want to be a scientist? A doctor or nurse?

Our customer wants kids to know about pediatric clinical research. You might want to become a researcher, doctor, or scientist someday. Also, some day someone you know—a friend, family member, or even you—may be asked to take part in clinical research. Sometimes people are afraid of things that are new or different, just because they don’t know much about it. We are trying to make it easy for you and other kids your age to understand what this kind of research is all about.

That’s why we are making this game. To make sure the game works well, we are talking to kids, their parents, teachers, and scientists who do pediatric clinical research.

What you tell us today will help us a lot. So I want to say thank you again for talking to us.

Now in this computer game, the player—that’s you—is going to work with a team of researchers at Heartland Pediatric Clinic. You will start out as a CLINICAL RESEARCH TRAINEE. In the game you go from room to room.

DISPLAY CLINIC MAP. [See attached illustration.]

Can everyone see the map?

In each room you meet a different person who works at the clinic, and they tell you about their work. Echo, the mouse, sneaks into each room with you. Each room also has a minigame you can play (that is a game within the game)—a match game, a find-the-hidden-objects game, or a jigsaw puzzle. To unlock the next room, you must answer some questions about what you just learned.

DISPLAY SPLASH SCREEN TEXT AND READ IT.

4. This is how the game will start. How does this make you feel about playing the game?

Questions about the Game

5. How do you feel about playing a game like the one I described where you go from room to room and learn new things? [Prompt: How does it compare to[educational game they named in response to question 3 above]?

6. What do you think about having a mouse as a secret partner? [Prompts: Do you like the idea of having a mouse that helps you out and can answer your questions during the game? If you could choose any animal, what would you choose? Why?]

7. What rooms do you think would be most interesting?

8. What do you think you might do in the laboratory?

9. What do you think you might do in the exam room?

Now I’d like to show you some sketches of what the game might look like.

DISPLAY THE LOBBY. [See attached illustration.]

This is the lobby.

DISPLAY LAB. [See attached illustration.]

This is the lab.

10. What do you think about the way the rooms look? [Probe: Did you see anything unusual?]

11. Was anything missing from the rooms that you expected to see? [Probe: content, features, functions]

12. What words would you use to describe the people in the game?

Final Impressions

Now that you’ve looked at these sketches:

13. What do you think you might like most about the game?

14. What do you think you might like least?

15. What kinds of things would you expect to learn by playing this game?

Wrapup

OK, we’ve finished the questions I had for you. Do you have any further comments?

Thank you again for your participation.

Now it’s time for us to talk to your parents for 10–15 more minutes. Please go to the [x room] where we have some [describe activities] waiting for you.

Game Map

Lobby

Laboratory

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