Gamification Strategies As Socialization Tools In The Context Of Pediatric Hospitalization

Pediatric hospitalization causes a series of psychological problems and can have negative consequences in children's social life derived from their internment and the lack of contact with peers and family. In order to improve this aspect of pediatric admittance, and to alleviate the difficulties they might suffer, this work aims to provide the children with a set of tools and games that allow them to interact with other people from inside the hospital in an effective way, by testing different gaming mechanics and strategies to determine which are the ones that foster interaction between the participants the most. In the end, a social network of games and communication will be developed and evaluated against a control group to see what the impact is and how it changes the hospitalization experience to those children exposed to it.