Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Education. 3rd EAI International Conference, TIE 2019, Braga, Portugal, October 17–18, 2019, Proceedings

Research Article

Didactic Toy for Children with Special Needs

Download
88 downloads
  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-030-40180-1_8,
        author={Jo\"{a}o Salgado and Filomena Soares and V\^{\i}tor Carvalho},
        title={Didactic Toy for Children with Special Needs},
        proceedings={Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Education. 3rd EAI International Conference, TIE 2019, Braga, Portugal, October 17--18, 2019, Proceedings},
        proceedings_a={TIE},
        year={2020},
        month={1},
        keywords={Serious game Adapted toy Inclusive technology},
        doi={10.1007/978-3-030-40180-1_8}
    }
    
  • João Salgado
    Filomena Soares
    Vítor Carvalho
    Year: 2020
    Didactic Toy for Children with Special Needs
    TIE
    Springer
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-40180-1_8
João Salgado1,*, Filomena Soares1,*, Vítor Carvalho2,*
  • 1: University of Minho
  • 2: Polytechnic Institute of Cavado and Ave
*Contact email: a68529@alunos.uminho.pt, fsoares@dei.uminho.pt, vcarvalho@ipca.pt

Abstract

In the last years, technology is receiving an important role in the development of new games and toys for children with special needs. In this paper a configurable prototype game is presented specially designed for children with special needs. The goal is to promote reaction and memory skills as well cooperative work in these children. The toy is capable of producing audio and visual sensations and it has more than one playable game (a reaction game, a memory game and a multiplayer game). Furthermore, it is an important tool for the therapists, since all gaming plays are tracked and registered in a database to posteriorly being filtered and presented using statistic methodologies. Preliminary tests were performed in real environment with children mainly with cerebral palsy. The feedback is promising enough to take it to the next step, which will be the integration of artificial intelligence approaches.