Exploring motion-based touchless games for autistic children's learning

Our understanding of the effectiveness of motion-based touchless games for autistic children is limited, because of the small amount of empirical studies and the limits of our current knowledge on autism. This paper offers two contributions. First, we provide a survey and a discussion of the existing literature. Second, we describe a field study that extends the current body of empirical evidence of the potential benefits of touchless motion-based gaming for autistic children. Our research involved five autistic children and one therapist in the experimentation of a set of Kinect games at a therapeutic center for a period of two and a half months. Using standardized therapeutic tests, observations during game sessions, and video analysis of over 20 hours of children's activities, we evaluated the learning benefits in relationship to attentional skills and explored several factors in the emotional and behavioral sphere. Our findings show improvements of the considered learning variables and help us to better understand how autistic children experience motion-based touchless play. Overall, our research sheds a light on the opportunities offered full body touchless games for therapy and education of these special users.

[1]  Sukeshini A. Grandhi,et al.  Understanding naturalness and intuitiveness in gesture production: insights for touchless gestural interfaces , 2011, CHI.

[2]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Where the action is , 2001 .

[3]  Jane Yung-jen Hsu,et al.  Playful Tray: Adopting Ubicomp and Persuasive Techniques into Play-Based Occupational Therapy for Reducing Poor Eating Behavior in Young Children , 2007, UbiComp.

[4]  Maria Roussou,et al.  Exploring rules and underlying concepts while engaged with collaborative full-body games , 2010, IDC.

[5]  L. Gauthier,et al.  The Bells Test: A quantitative and qualitative test for visual neglect. , 1989 .

[6]  Thomas B. Moeslund,et al.  A Procedure for Developing Intuitive and Ergonomic Gesture Interfaces for HCI , 2003, Gesture Workshop.

[7]  Shing-Tsaan Huang,et al.  The Effects of Using Embodied Interactions to Improve Learning Performance , 2012, 2012 IEEE 12th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies.

[8]  R. Brickenkamp,et al.  D2 Test of Attention , 1998 .

[9]  Hui-mei Justina Hsu.  The Potential of Kinect as Interactive Educational Technology , 2011 .

[10]  R. Jordan.  Social Play and Autistic Spectrum Disorders , 2003, Autism : the international journal of research and practice.

[11]  P. Mitchell,et al.  The potential of virtual reality in social skills training for people with autistic spectrum disorders. , 2002, Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR.

[12]  Janice Light,et al.  Supporting the Communication, Language, and Literacy Development of Children with Complex Communication Needs: State of the Science and Future Research Priorities , 2012, Assistive technology : the official journal of RESNA.

[13]  S. Goldin-Meadow,et al.  Making children gesture brings out implicit knowledge and leads to learning. , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[14]  Gregory D. Abowd,et al.  Monitoring children’s developmental progress using augmented toys and activity recognition , 2012, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[15]  Wendy Keay-Bright,et al.  Is simplicity the key to engagement for children on the autism spectrum? , 2012, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[16]  Noel Kok Hwee Chia,et al.  Design of a generic questionnaire for reflective evaluation of a virtual reality-based intervention using virtual dolphins for children with autism , 2012 .

[17]  P. Robinson,et al.  The emotional hearing aid: an assistive tool for children with Asperger syndrome , 2005, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[18]  S. Shamsuddin,et al.  Initial response of autistic children in human-robot interaction therapy with humanoid robot NAO , 2012, 2012 IEEE 8th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications.

[19]  Margaret Wilson,et al.  Six views of embodied cognition , 2002, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[20]  Peter Mitchell,et al.  Virtual environments for social skills training: comments from two adolescents with autistic spectrum disorder , 2006, Comput. Educ..

[21]  Hannah Hoch,et al.  Teaching Children with Autism to Play a Video Game Using Activity Schedules and Game-Embedded Simultaneous Video Modeling , 2010 .

[22]  Matthew S. Goodwin,et al.  Exploring speech therapy games with children on the autism spectrum , 2009, INTERSPEECH.

[23]  Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze,et al.  Does Body Movement Engage You More in Digital Game Play? and Why? , 2007, ACII.

[24]  D. Murray,et al.  Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism , 2005, Autism.

[25]  Mark Evans.  Gestural Interfaces in Learning , 2012 .

[26]  Nopporn Chotikakamthorn,et al.  Evaluation the Efficacy of Computer - Based Training Using Tangible User Interface for Low-Function Children with Autism , 2008, 2008 Second IEEE International Conference on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning.

[27]  ParesNarcis,et al.  Achieving Dialogue with Children with Severe Autism in an Adaptive Multisensory Interaction , 2005 .

[28]  Jesse Schell,et al.  The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses , 2019 .

[29]  T. F. McLaughlin,et al.  EDUCATIONAL GAMES: A TECHNIQUE TO ACCELERATE THE ACQUISITION OF READING SKILLS OF CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES , 2005 .

[30]  M. Rutter.  Diagnosis and definition of childhood autism , 1978, Journal of autism and childhood schizophrenia.

[31]  Norman H. Villaroman,et al.  Teaching natural user interaction using OpenNI and the Microsoft Kinect sensor , 2011, SIGITE '11.

[32]  Juan Pablo Hourcade,et al.  Multitouch tablet applications and activities to enhance the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorders , 2012, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[33]  Kerstin Dautenhahn,et al.  Therapeutic and educational objectives in robot assisted play for children with autism , 2009, RO-MAN 2009 - The 18th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

[34]  J. Bruner,et al.  Play: Its Role in Development and Evolution , 1976 .

[35]  Inmaculada Coma,et al.  A Kinect-based Augmented Reality System for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders , 2018, GRAPP/IVAPP.

[36]  Er. Zainab Pirani.  Gesture Based Educational Software for Children with Acquired Brain Injuries , 2010 .

[37]  E. Niedermeyer,et al.  Clinical neuropsychology of attention , 1994 .

[38]  Narcís Parés,et al.  Achieving dialogue with children with severe autism in an adaptive multisensory interaction: the "MEDIATE" project , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.