Shhh! Don’t tell kids they are learning maths on the app

SINGAPORE — Learning through play has long been espoused as one of the best methods of teaching young children, particularly in problem solving, languages, literacy, numeracy, and social and emotional skills. But as children move past pre-school into formal education, the science of play is more often than not cast aside for more structured learning.

Enter mother-of-two Grace Chua, 44, who wants to revolutionise children’s education through play and technology.

The former high-placed corporate honcho has created an app that incorporates mathematical sums into a detective game to help kids learn without actually learning, beyond assessment books and tuition classes.

Aimed at children between the ages of six and 10, DetecThink is a game about a prince who has lost his crown. To find the missing crown, the player will have to find clues and unlock secret passcodes. The only way to advance the game is to solve maths puzzles. By the end of the game, the child would have solved close to 100 such puzzles, without even realising it.

“My business partner and I are both mums. Our parenting styles are similar, in learning through play. These days, children are (widely) exposed to digital games. The challenge we saw is that not all entertaining games are educational, and not all educational games are entertaining,” said Ms Chua. “We felt there was a space for apps that mix entertainment and education,” she added.

“My moment of inspiration came one day when I saw my niece playing with her iPad, and her mum brought out a traditional assessment book and told her it was time to do some revision … I thought to myself, ‘Is there a way to come up with a game and integrate it with education such that the child sees it as a game, while mummy sees it as a learning tool’?” Ms Chua said.

So in January last year, she left a senior role at Johnson & Johnson to pursue her passion. Pouring her “retirement savings” into her dream, Ms Chua and her business partner invested a six-figure sum into the project.

The company incorporated Intellipath Games in February last year, and subsequently developed a prototype to test their concept. They tested the app on 50 respondents — a mix of Singaporean and international-school mothers — and the response turned out to be very encouraging.

While developing the product, they also constantly consulted tutors and a child psychologist to keep refining the game.

“What we were trying to do was bring in learning, gaming psychology and storytelling; to find the right balance between entertainment and education. By putting the educational content in a story, the kids are now forced to think out of the box to solve the maths questions,” said Ms Chua.

The iOS-only app, which was launched last month, has received positive feedback, with some customers already inquiring about the launch of the next series.

The game, which has 10 chapters, currently focuses on addition and subtraction puzzles. It has a difficulty level from one to five that can be preset before the game is played. Each chapter takes about 10 minutes to complete.

The first four chapters are free; to proceed from the fifth chapter, the player will have to make an in-app purchase costing S$6.98. Players are advised to spend about 15 to 30 minutes a day on the game after their homework.

The app has also had traction from outside Singapore, with downloads from countries such as Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Just weeks into the launch, Ms Chua is already planning to launch another detective story in the forseeable future. Longer-term plans include launching the product in different languages and subjects, as well as in other mathematical puzzles such as multiplication and division. By the end of this year, she hopes to see 30,000 households in Singapore using the app.

“There’s no escaping the digital era, so the approach is to get technology to work for us. The openness for parents to letting their children play and getting more exposure to technology should be present when there is learning to be made. Schools are also integrating technology into their curriculum, so I think it is a good balance to introduce these digital platforms to children,” Ms Chua said.