An interactive E-book with an educational game for children with developmental disorders: A pilot user study

Abstract

Abstract-Children diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as one of the most complex neurodevelopmental disabilities, are characterized by different brain and functioning development, distinct interaction with the environment and different learning patterns, language and social skills impairments, and repetitive auto-stimulating restricting behaviors. It has been shown that computer-assisted intervention is much more attention captivating and interesting to children compared with a classic approach to teaching, allowing for faster acquisition of skills. This makes these tools and the technology highly suitable for teaching children with autism basic developmental skills. In addition, interactive electronic books showed positive outcomes for comprehension and information acquisition in children with ASD, while decreasing inappropriate children behavior in the classroom. In this paper a pilot user study on an e-book with an embedded educational game for children with developmental disorders was presented. The results show that the e-book can be efficiently used for teaching children with ASD basic developmental skills and that the learned skills can be efficiently transfered to new media and environments. The framework will provide preschool children with and without disabilities with appropriate educational software, to build up their early cognitive abilities and school readiness skills, and promote incorporating technology as part of the educational and pedagogical process in schools.

Studying the effects of computer serious games on people with intellectual disabilities or autism spectrum disorder: A systematic literature review

“…Thus, the targeted social skills are improved transparently and not directly through the game. In the conceptual skills category, all the studies belong to language and literacy skills, apart from the study of Pistoljevic and Hulusic (2017) presenting a SG that aims to improve both vocabulary and the concept of numbers in children with ASD. This is the case, because as stated in Section 1, people with ASD have limitations in social and communicational skills.…”

“…In the interpersonal skills, the studies addressing social interactions (Barajas et al, 2017;Bernardini et al, 2014;Foster et al, 2010;Hourcade et al, 2012), recognition of emotions (Fridenson-Hayo et al, 2017;Grynszpan et al, 2008), and facial expressions (Gordon et al, 2014) are included. In the conceptual skills category, all the studies belong to language and literacy skills, apart from the study of Pistoljevic and Hulusic (2017) presenting a SG that aims to improve both vocabulary and the concept of numbers in children with ASD. Thus, the targeted social skills are improved transparently and not directly through the game.…”

“…. Also, SGs presented inCaria et al (2018) andPistoljevic and Hulusic (2017) are developed to be hosted in the Web and therefore are available on both PCs and mobile devices.In the studies where game consoles are used, the games are not developed by the researchers but are commercial games(Bartoli et al, 2013;Blum-Dimaya et al, 2010;Ferguson et al, 2013;Salem et al, 2012). Also, SGs presented inCaria et al (2018) andPistoljevic and Hulusic (2017) are developed to be hosted in the Web and therefore are available on both PCs and mobile devices.In the studies where game consoles are used, the games are not developed by the researchers but are commercial games(Bartoli et al, 2013;Blum-Dimaya et al, 2010;Ferguson et al, 2013;Salem et al, 2012).…”

“…), the SG developed could be hosted in both personal computers and tablet computers. Also, SGs presented inCaria et al (2018) andPistoljevic and Hulusic (2017) are developed to be hosted in the Web and therefore are available on both PCs and mobile devices.In the studies where game consoles are used, the games are not developed by the researchers but are commercial games(Bartoli et al, 2013;Blum-Dimaya et al, 2010;Ferguson et al, 2013;Salem et al, 2012). Thus, using a custom SG to be hosted in a game console is not preferred.…”

Educational e-book for children with and without developmental disorders

“…Serious games for ASD treatment are mainly aimed at teaching basic developmental skills, including communication, social behaviour and conversation, imaginative skills, sensory integration, emotional expressions, etc. (Hourcade et al 2012;de Urturi et al 2011;Hulusic and Pistoljevic 2012, 2016Pistoljevic and Hulusic 2017). An extensive overview of serious games for treatment of ASD, along with a classification according to technology platform, computer graphics (2D vs. 3D), gaming aspect and interaction type, is presented by Zakari et al (2014).…”