Research on an Educational Toy for Preschool Children’s Oral Care Based on Persuasive Design

In China’s rapid urbanization, the dietary structure of preschool children tends to be high in sugar, fat, and salt. Due to increased economic and employment pressures, some Chinese families have adopted intergenerational education where children are cared for by their grandparents, who are usually not educated in modern oral health care knowledge, which leads to a lack of proper understanding of children’s oral care and makes it difficult for them to effectively guide their children in proper oral care behaviors. The prevalence of early childhood caries in younger children is alarming. The main objective of this study was to develop a science-based toy product on oral care knowledge aimed at encouraging preschoolers to perform proper oral care and prevent dental caries. This study is guided by the FBM model and refers to Professor Fogg’s persuasion technique, which was developed in five stages: identifying persuasive behaviors -identifying target users -analyzing the elements of user behavioral persuasion - -Selecting appropriate persuasion strategies -Designing practices. By designing the children’s game-based brushing method, we guide children to complete the oral care process in a fun way while fighting with monsters, correcting incorrect brushing postures in time, and ensuring the duration of children’s brushing, to realize the correct process of brushing teeth on their own. We hope that this product can guide children to change bad oral care methods, establish healthy oral care habits, realize the stimulation of children’s internal drive to care for their teeth and prevent children’s dental caries.