A Serious Game for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder as a tool for play therapy
We propose a Serious Game (SG) for children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) composed of a Tangible User Interface (TUI) and a Graphical User Interface (GUI) The TUI is built from physical Lego like building blocks augmented with electronic modules. The proposed SG is envisaged as a play therapy tool aimed at improving autistic children's social and cognitive skills. We investigate the effects of using our SG in a play therapy exercise, by running an empirical study that compares conventional clinical non computer block games with the proposed SG. In our preliminary experimental study, the proposed system showed an improvement in social interaction, collaborative play and exercise performance, and a decrease in solitary play. Our results suggest that the proposed system can be a useful tool for play therapy aimed for young children with ASD.
2017 IEEE 5th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH)