Video games and Intellectual Disabilities: a literature review.

Los videojuegos son omnipresentes en la sociedad y esta tecnología ha trascendido su lado lúdico inicial para convertirse también en una herramienta educativa y de entrenamiento cognitivo. En este sentido, diferentes estudios han demostrado que los jugadores expertos obtener ventajas en diversos procesos cognitivos respecto a no-jugadores y jugar con juegos de video puede resultar en especial los beneficios que en algunos casos podría generalizarse a otras tareas. En consecuencia, los juegos de video podría ser utilizado como una herramienta de formación para mejorar las capacidades cognitivas en poblaciones atípicas, como las relativas a las personas con discapacidad intelectual (DI). Sin embargo, la literatura sobre los videojuegos en personas con ID es escasa. En este trabajo se ejecutó una revisión narrativa de los estudios sobre el uso de los videojuegos en relación a las personas con ID.Video games are ubiquitous in the society and this technology has transcended its initial playful side to become also an educational and cognitive training tool. In this sense, different studies have shown that expert game players gain advantages in various cognitive processes respect to non-players and that playing with video games can result in particular profits that in some cases could be generalized to other tasks. Accordingly, video games could be used as a training tool in order to improve cognitive abilities in atypical populations, such as relating to individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). However, literature concerning video games in people with ID is sparse. In this paper we executed a narrative review of the studies about the use of video games in relation to people with ID.• Fundación Valhondo Calaff (Cáceres), para Marta Rodríguez Jiménez • Università di Padova. Beca CPDA 127939, para Silvia LanfranchipeerReviewe

The Modified-Classroom Observation Schedule to Measure Intentional Communication (M-COSMIC): Evaluation of reliability and validity

The Modified – Classroom Observation Schedule to Measure Intentional Communication (M-COSMIC) was developed as an ecologically valid measure of social-communication behaviour, delineating forms, functions, and intended partners of children’s spontaneous communication acts. Forty one children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 48 to 73 months were filmed within small-group settings at school. Communication behaviours during a five-minute teacher-led activity and a 10-minute free play session were coded from video-tape. Inter-rater reliability was high. Many M-COSMIC codes were significantly associated as predicted with Social and Communication domain scores on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and with scores on standardised language assessments. Agreement was more variable, however, at the level of individual M-COSMIC codes and ADOS items. Higher rates of responding, compliance behaviours and following pointing gestures and gaze occurred during the more structured teacher-led activity, compared to the free play. Results demonstrate preliminary construct validity of the M-COSMIC, showing its potential to describe and evaluate spontaneous social-communication skills in young children with ASD for research and applied purposes

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

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 school

Increasing Speech Ability of the Autistic Children by an Interactive Computer Game

Autism is one of the most common development disorders in the world, which affects about one in every 150 kids. It is a lifelong disability with no known cure at this time. It affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around him. They face problem to communicate with other people. Speech disorder is one of the most common complexities of autistic children. Most of the children are unable to speak like normal children. They speak repeated, meaningless word, which is very harmful for their communication skills. Now a day2019;s computer plays an important role for teaching. So we proposed a method which increases the speech ability of autistic children by an interactive computer game. Our game helps autistic children to improve his verbal communication ability. As children likes to play computer games, so our game will be the perfect way to teach new words to autistic children or increase their fluency of known words. We provide a module with that helps children to also learn mathematics. Their progress can be evaluated through our game module

Educational E-book For Children With and Without Developmental Disorders

In the last decade, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) prevalence rate has signifcantly increased, which consequently led to the expansion of research and expenditure in the feld,predominantly focusing on searching for the cause. In a typical classroom scenario, working with children with ASD very often requires 1:1 teacher to child ratio, which makes it very expensive and difcult to implement. Serious games have been utilised as a medium for teaching various developmental skills, such as social interaction, speech, motor skills development, emotion recognition, and other basic concepts. Designing serious games for ASD population difers from other games and even other serious games signifcantly. It requires a holistic approach with extensive knowledge and expertise from felds other than computer science, such as psychology, sociology and cognitive science. However, once harnessed correctly, such games can be used by children with ASD on their own time, with or without supervision and they can be educational. In addition, they can adjust the appropriate pace while at the same time providing feedback in form of reinforcement and correction. Applying the rules of science of learning and teaching, one can design games that are educational for all types of learners, including children with ASD. In this paper, two independent user studies have been conducted, demonstrating how serious gaming and e-learning principles can be harnessed in order to intervene, develop or strengthen pivotal developmental skills, like learning novel vocabulary, counting, identifying numbers and colours, and responding to inference questions. We have tested the educational e-book with children diagnosed with ASD and with typically developing children to assess skill acquisition in native language for children with ASD and in English, a foreign language, for typically developing children to demonstrate the educational aspect of the game for all types of learners. We showed that the same e-book in two languages can be used for teaching diferent types of learners through a fun and engaging medium

The design principles of edutainment system for autistic children with communication difficulties

The number of children with autism is increasing worldwide. Children with autism face three major problems; socializing, communicating, and behaviour. Approximately 50% of all individuals with autism have difficulties in developing functional language owing to communication deterioration. Mobile devices with installed educational games help these individuals feel more comfortable and relaxed doing such activities. Although numerous mobile applications are available for individuals with autism, they are difficult to use; particularly in terms of user-interface design. This study analysed the existing apps in order to determine the design principles applicable to the Edutainment App being studied. Five applications were involved in this analysis. As outlined in the objectives of this study, identifying these design principles is important in designing the app. The analysis identified fifteen suggestions for the design principles. These suggestions addressed, simple interfaces; image size; number of pictures; home page icon; colour; having images identical to real life objects; the use of caregivers; navigation; password-protection; audio appropriate to the images; the app language used; evaluating parameters to measure the child’s growth; option for photo loading; PECS-based communication; and sentence pronunciation function. These recommendations are offered by this study towards designing and developing a prototype app for autistic children. This study introduces an edutainment-system design principle formulated to help develop the communication skills of children with autism-spectrum disorders. This study also describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of the ICanTalk app-a mobile edutainment app that can be used to improve users’ understanding and communication skills and help them to connect with society and the surrounding environment particularly for autistic children with communication difficulties. This app allows caregivers to create personalized content using pictures and audio on their mobile devices (tablets). The evaluation of the app by teachers suggests that it is useful and easy-to-use. In conclusion, based on the evaluation results, it is found that the ICanTalk app is effective in helping autistic children with communication difficultie

Teaching Language to Students with Autism

This meta-synthesis of the literature on methods of instruction to students with ASD examines the various methods of teaching language to students with ASD. While each student learns language at his or her own pace, the author has found that certain methods yield results quicker, and these methods need to be examined critically for any literature on their reliability, efficacy, and scientific research. If a student with autism can be taught language quickly, therefore mitigating any further delays in academic development relative to peers, then this methodology should be made accessible to all teachers of such students

Read, Play and Learn: An Interactive E-book for Children with Autism

Serious games can easily engage students, captivate and maintain their attention allowing them both learning with an adult, or on their own. But, teaching children with developmental disabilities like ASD, requires special set of tools and methods, due to decreased level of attention towards stimuli presented and lessened capability to learn in ways typical children do. Interactive multisensory computer based instruction seems to be a good match for these diverse learners because it offers multisensory learning experience, interactive practice with constant feedback, increased learning opportunities, and customization to each child’s needs. In this paper we present a web-based interactive educational e-book designed to engage a learner with additional auditory-visual stimulation related to the text being read in two languages, and by providing multi layered questions about the story read, for comprehension. Our educational goals were to teach children novel vocabulary, counting, identifying numbers and colors, and responding to inference questions

Using Two iPad® Apps that Provide Graphic Organizers and Explicit Curricular Vocabulary Instruction for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Single Subject Multiple Probe Study

This study represents a quantitative approach to research, which was focused on information retrieval in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who attended inquiry-based classes in British international primary schools in Hong Kong. A single-subject multiple probe across behaviors, with concurrent replication across five participants, was the research design, which was used to study the effects of both the Popplet app and Futaba Classroom Games for Kids app on the ability of 7-11 year old children with ASD to learn vocabulary words for an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) Unit of Inquiry. The study also examined the effects of the use of these two apps on the ability of each participant to use those vocabulary words during speaking activities in the inclusive classroom and on the end-of-unit reflection sheet. In order to collect data, the researcher used: (a) probe sessions, (b) systematic observations during lessons, and (c) analysis of written or verbal responses for the end-of-unit reflection sheet. Graphic analysis was conducted through visual inspection of graphs as well as by calculation of: (a) data trends, (b) absolute level change, (c) relative level change, (d) level stability, and (e) the percentage of non-overlapping data (PND). The results indicated a functional relationship between the intervention and the ability of each participant to learn and use targeted vocabulary words