To explore the impact of game playing during nursing on the social, emotional, and behavioral skills of children.

Ond hundred kindergarten children with indigestion due to overeating who visited the children's health care division of Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University from February 2019 to February 2020 were randomized into an experimental group and a control group. Fifty healthy children who underwent physical examination during the same period were selected as a blank control group. A variety of games were developed in this research, including the use of virtual reality (VR) technology to immerse children in interactive games, relatively simple Lego puzzle games, and watching cartoons to discuss plots with each other and imitate performances, etc. Children in the experimental group played games for 4 days per week for 4 weeks, and played games with each other 2 times/ week. Children in the control and blank groups had no game activities. The social competence and behavior evaluation scale-30 (SCBE-30) was used to evaluate children's social, emotional, and behavioral skills before and after game playing.

Before game playing, the children's behavioral skills (CBS), social competence (SC), anxiety withdrawal (AW), composition score of negative affect, and emotional skill score among the three groups were significantly different (P＜0.05), but they did not differ significantly between the experimental group and the control group (P＞0.05). After game playing, the CBS, SC, AW, composition score of negative affect, and emotional skill score increased significantly in both groups (P＜0.05). Compared with the control group, the CBS, SC, AW, composition score of negative affect, and emotional skill score in the experimental group increased significantly in the experiment group (P＜0.05).

Game playing helps to improve the social, emotional, and behavioral skills of children in preschool outpatient clinics, reduce the level of fear and anxiety about diseases, improve communication and coping skills, and improve self-esteem. Therefore, it is recommended to use games in the outpatient care of preschool children to help them recover.