Serious Games in Autism Spectrum Disorder - An Example of Personalised Design

Over the last decade, several studies evaluated the use of Serious Games as tools to encourage the development of communication, the process of learning, and social behaviour in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) alongside traditional therapeutic approaches. The proposed study intends to employ and rate the use of Serious Games to create personalised interactive environments aimed to improve the learning of educational content in children with ASD. In particular, a multidisciplinary team supported the design and development of the serious game to allow a personalised approach

Toward emotional interactive videogames for children with autism spectrum disorder

Technology and videogames have been proven as motivating tools for working attention and complex communication skills, especially in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this work, we present two experiences that used interactive games for promoting communication and attention. The first game considers emotions in order to measure children’s attention, concentration and satisfaction, while the second uses tangible tabletops for fostering cognitive planning. The analysis of the results obtained allows to propose a new study integrating both, in which the tangible interactive game is complemented with the emotional trainer in a way that allows identifying and classifying children’s emotion with ASD when they collaborate to solve cognitively significant and contextualized challenges. The first application proposed is an emotional trainer application in which the child can work out the seven basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise and neutral). Further, a serious videogame is proposed: a 3D maze where the emotions can be captured. The second case study was carried out in a Special Education Center, where a set of activities for working cognitive planning was proposed. In this case, a tangible interactive tabletop was used to analyze, in students with ASD, how the communication processes with these interfaces affect to the attention, memory, successive and simultaneous processing that compose cognitive planning from the PASS model. The results of the first study, suggest that the autistic children did not act with previous planning, but they used their perception to adjust their actions a posteriori (that explains the higher number of collisions). On the second case study, the successive processing was not explored. The inclusion of the mazes of case study 1 to a semantic rich scenario could allow us to measure the prior planning and the emotions involved in the maze game. The new physiological sensors will also help to validate the emotions felt by the children. The first study has as objective the capability to imitate emotions and resolve a maze without semantic context. The second study organized all the actions from a semantic context close to users. The attention results presented by the second study are coherent with the first study and complement it showing that attention can be receptive or selective. In the first study case, the receptive attention was the focus of analysis. In the second case, both contributed to explain and understand how it can be developed from a videogame

Phase 3 diagnostic evaluation of a smart tablet serious game to identify autism in 760 children 3–5 years old in Sweden and the United Kingdom

Acknowledgments We are grateful to the children, their parents, teachers and clinicians who have worked so hard to make this study possible, both in its design and in its implementation. Funding This work was subcontracted to the University of Strathclyde by Harimata sp. z o.o. as an integral part of a Horizon 2020 SME Instrument, grant number 756079. Prepublication history for this paper is available online. To view these files, please visit the journal online (http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026226).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge and Attitudes toward Digital-Game-Based Language Learning

There is a good body of literature about digital-game-based language learning (DGBL), but research has mainly focused on students as game players rather than as future educators. This paper reports on a research conducted among 154 teacher candidates at a higher-education institution in Spain regarding the adoption of digital games in education. It analyzes the participants’ knowledge of and attitudes toward digital games in foreign language learning. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through a pre/post-test, digital game presentations, and student blog posts. The research comprised five stages associated with critical thinking skills (definition, selection, demonstration, discussion, and reflection), including a game learning module. In the first two stages, preservice teachers completed the module activities and selected different games aimed at teaching English to children in preschool and elementary education. In the last two, they illustrated, discussed, and evaluated the digital games in class following a rubric and reflected on their perception in blog posts. In this four-week research based on a mixed method and convenience sampling, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through a pre- and post-test survey about student perceptions toward the use of video game in the classroom, class discussion, and blog posts. Statistical data analysis unveiled gender-based differences related to gameplay frequency and genre preferences. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used as a nonparametric statistical hypothesis test to compare the two sets of scores resulting from the same participants, and it showed a significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) after the treatment in two of the five dimensions in the survey about teacher candidates’ attitudes toward game usage in education, namely, usefulness (U) and preference for video games (PVG). Research findings revealed preservice teachers’ positive attitudes but lack of practical knowledge about the use of digital games in foreign-language learning

The Use of Binaural Based Spatial Audio in the Reduction of Auditory Hypersensitivity in Autistic Young People

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterised as experiencing impairments in social-emotional interaction and communication, alongside frequently displaying repetitive behaviours and interests. Further to this, they are often described as experiencing difficulties in processing sensory information, with particular prevalence within the auditory modality. Provoked by common environmental sounds, auditory hypersensitivity can result in self-regulatory fear responses. Rather than a physiological pain reaction, literature suggests that these hypersensitivities are resulting through irrational fear of the sounds. This investigation evaluates the use of binaural based spatial audio as a rendering technique for delivering realistic simulations of averse stimuli within a virtual reality (VR) exposure based computer game intervention for auditory hypersensitivity in autism. Over multiple experimental sessions, 20 autistic participants experiencing auditory hypersensitivity were exposed to either spatial audio or stereo renders of target stimuli during the intervention. Measurements of self-reported emotions displayed significant reductions in associated negative emotional reactions to target stimuli for all participants. However, significant improvements were experienced by those listening to spatial audio simulations. Moreover, tracked voluntary interactions with exposure based game-mechanics increased as the study progressed. Providing further evidence of increased tolerance towards averse auditory stimuli

A Domain-Specific Modeling approach for a simulation-driven validation of gamified learning environments Case study about teaching the mimicry of emotions to children with autism

Game elements are rarely explicit when designing serious games or gamified learning activities. We think that the overall design, including instructional design aspects and gamification elements, should be validate by involved experts in the earlier stage of the general design & develop process. We tackle this challenge by proposing a Domain-specific Modeling orientation to our proposals: a metamodeling formalism to capture the gamified instructional design model, and a specific validation process involving domain experts. The validation includes a static verification , by using this formalism to model concrete learning sessions based on concrete informations from real situations described by experts, and a dynamic verification, by developing a simplified simulator for 'execut-ing' the learning sessions scenarios with experts. This propositions are part of the EmoTED research project about a learning application, the mimicry of emotions, for children with ASD. It aims at reinforce face-to-face teaching sessions with therapists by training sessions at home with the supervision of the children's parents. This case-study will ground our proposals and their experimentations

Inclusion scolaire des enfants TSA et interventions basées sur les nouvelles technologies : une revue de littérature

International audienceDuring the last two decades, numerous technology-based interventions have been developed to support school inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorders. Whilst these interventions can result in improving targeted behaviors and cognitive processes, their transfer to mainstream school situations remains limited. To overcome such difficulties and by leveraging new technologies, novel interventions have been implemented in mainstream environments (typically school settings). However, the therapeutic effects of such interventions are rarely – and weakly – measured. New experimental designs and evaluation criterion are thus still to be developed. This paper presents a literature review of these interventions. Limitations and new research avenues offered by multidisciplinary approaches are discussed.Les interventions visant l’inclusion scolaire des enfants avec troubles du spectre autistique sont souvent menées au cabinet du thérapeute et, au mieux, en classes spécialisées. Ces lieux protégés permettent des prises en charge améliorant les comportements et les processus cognitifs ciblés. Cependant, la généralisation de ces bénéfices aux situations de vie scolairereste limitée. Pour surmonter ces difficultés, des interventions ont été implémentées directement en environnement écologique (typiquement l’environnement scolaire) en s’appuyant sur les nouvelles technologies. Cet article présente une revue de littérature de ces interventions. Les avancées et les limites sont présentées, et les perspectives de recherchedans les approches pluridisciplinaires sont discutées

Tracking Visible Features of Speech for Computer-Based Speech Therapy for Childhood Apraxia of Speech

At present, there are few, if any, effective computer-based speech therapy systems (CBSTs) that support the at-home component for clinical interventions for Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). PROMPT, an established speech therapy intervention for CAS, has the potential to be supported via a CBST, which could increase engagement and provide valuable feedback to the child. However, the necessary computational techniques have not yet been developed and evaluated. In this thesis, I will describe the development of some of the key underlying computational components that are required for the development of such a system. These components concern camera-based tracking of visible features of speech which concern jaw kinematics. These components would also be necessary for the serious game that we have envisioned

Zirkus Empathico 2.0, A serious game to foster emotional and collaborative skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Autismus-Spektrum-Störung (ASD) ist eine neurologische Entwicklungsstörung, die durch eine Reihe von Entwicklungsstörungen gekennzeichnet ist, die zu einem Mangel an sozialen, kommunikativen und kooperativen Fähigkeiten führen. Sozio-kommunikative Beeinträchtigungen können durch von Verhaltenstherapeuten konzipierte und durchgeführte Trainingsprogramme für soziale Kompetenzen verbessert werden. Computergestützte Therapien zur Lösung sozio-kommunikativer Schwierigkeiten bei Kindern, Jugendlichen und Erwachsenen mit ASD haben ermutigende Ergebnisse gezeigt. Das Serious-Game-Format ist eine Form der Intervention. Seriöse Spiele sind pädagogisch wertvoll, aber oft attraktiver als offensichtliche pädagogische Hilfsmittel. Zirkus Empathico 2.0 ist ein Serious Game für mehrere Spieler mit verschiedenen Levels und Bühnen in einer Zirkusumgebung. Die Auswertung erfolgte über einen Zeitraum von acht Wochen. Sechzig Kinder mit ASD im Alter von fünf bis elf Jahren wurden vor und nach der Behandlung untersucht. Zu den primären Ergebnissen gehörten die Empathiebewertung durch die Eltern und objektiv gemessene Fähigkeiten zur Emotionserkennung. Die Bewertung der Effektivität und Verwendbarkeit des Spiels für das Training sozialer Kompetenzen zeigte, dass es eine plausible Lernumgebung schuf, indem es das Bewusstsein der Studienteilnehmer für Fähigkeiten und neurotypisches Verhalten steigerte und ihre vorhergesagte Angst in zukünftigen sozialen Situationen verringerte. Nach der Behandlung wurden signifikante Behandlungseffekte festgestellt. Sowohl bei Kurz- als auch bei Langzeitbeurteilungen. Zirkus Empathico 2.0 ist erfolgreich bei der langfristigen Verbesserung der sozio-emotionalen Fähigkeiten in realen Situationen. Zukünftige Forschung sollte sich auf die spezifischen Prozesse konzentrieren, die den Übertragungs- und Aufrechterhaltungsvorteilen von Empathie und Emotionserkennung zugrunde liegen.Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a spectrum of developmental abnormalities that result in a lack of social, communicative, and collaborative abilities. Socio-communicative impairments can be improved through behavioral therapist-designed and delivered social-skills training programs. Computer-based therapies to resolve socio-communicative difficulties in children, adolescents, and adults with ASD have demonstrated encouraging outcomes. The serious game format is one type of intervention. Serious games are educational but often appeal more than overt pedagogical tools. Zirkus Empathico 2.0 is a multi-player serious game set with various levels and stages in a circus environment. It was evaluated over eight weeks. Sixty children with ASD aged five to eleven years were evaluated before treatment and post-treatment. Primary outcomes included empathy rating by parents and objectively measured emotion recognition abilities. Secondary outcomes were assessed as emotional awareness, emotion management, well-being, and personal therapy goals. The assessment of the game's effectiveness and usability for social-skills training indicated that it established a plausible learning environment by boosting trial participants' awareness of abilities and neurotypical behavior and decreasing their predicted fear in future social situations. Following treatment, significant treatment effects were detected. In both short- and long-term assessments, moderate impacts were observed on emotional awareness, emotion management, and autistic social symptomatology. Parents reported that therapy goals were met, and that treatment was transferred well. Zirkus Empathico 2.0 is successful at improving long-term socio-emotional abilities in real-world situations. Future research should focus on the specific processes behind empathy and emotion recognition's transmission and maintenance benefits