Game System for Rehabilitation Based on Kinect is Effective for Mental Retardation

Abstract

Kinect has already been widely used in the area of retardation, and this study is to evaluate whether the Game System for Rehabilitation based on Kinect is effective for children with mental retardation. The subjects in this paper are 112 children with mental retardation in Zhejiang province of China. The Game System for Rehabilitation based on Kinect was applied to assist the rehabilitation of children. Before the training, the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) was used to evaluate abilities of children, including self-care, mobility, and social function. And after having been trained for a month, the abilities of these children were evaluated again by PEDI. The results in this paper is that, after the application of Game System for Rehabilitation based on Kinect, the PEDI score of children is significantly higher than the score before training. And it can be concluded that the Game System for Rehabilitation based on Kinect can significantly improve self-care, mobility, and social function of children with MR.

Teachers’ Adoption of Embodied Learning Digital Games with an Inclusive Education Approach: Lessons Learnt from the INTELed Project in Spain

“…The application of embodied digital games to children with SEN has provided initial evidence of success, although many issues remain unexplored about the effectiveness of this approach to enhance learning [4]. Additional challenges arise when addressing the application of these technologies, which are normally designed for one-to-one and personalized interaction, to formal education in schools.…”

“…One decision that had to be taken was to decide which application(s) would be used in the pilots. After analysing the repository of embodied learning tools that had been created by the INTELEd project 3 , the teachers chose to use Kinems learning games 4 . Kinems offers a suite of movement-based educational kinect games for children with special education needs, such as dyspraxia, autism, ADHD and motor difficulties.…”

“…Inspired by this theory, there has been intensive research on the use of embodied digital technologies, with special focus on special education [1]. Existing research on embodied digital technologies has taken place in laboratory settings or one-to-one sessions in Special Education Units [4]. It is still a challenge how to integrate these embodied games and their associated pedagogical approaches into mainstream classrooms, specially in inclusive educational contexts with students with and without disabilities [6].…”

The INTELed pedagogical framework

“…The most frequent special needs addressed so far are: motor impairments (like e.g. [11] [12] [10]), Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), [9][13] [14] and other cognitive disabilities, like mental retardation [15], Comorbid learning disorders [16], and Attention Deficit Hiperactivity Disorder [17]. The results also show that there is still need of more empirical evidence on the effectiveness of these tools, and a lack of knowledge about their potential use and benefits in classrooms in the context of inclusive education.…”

“…Altanis, Boloudakis, Retalis, and Nikou [11] make two recommendations related to the design of games for children with SEN, which they applied to the design of the games included in the Kinems suite: adapatability to the content, the gestures, and the game elements; and integration of learning analytics modules for monitoring and assessment. A second set of design guidelines refers to how to adapt games to the needs of children with SEN. Malinverni et al [14] applied their inclusive design approach to the design of the game "Pico's Adventures" and carried out an exploratory study with 10 children. From this experience they derived a set of guidelines and suggestions for future work in the design of therapeutic games for children with ASD:…”