Educational tools for children with special needs

Designing educational tools, based on body interaction, for children with special needs
who present different motor skills
Benoît Bossavit, Alfredo Pina
benoit.bossavit@unavarra.es
Public University of Navarre, Spain

17 /10/2014 Benoît Bossavit
General Motivation

Existing work
•
Exergames
–
Hernandez H.A., Ye Z., Graham T.C.N., Fehlings D., Switzer L. (2013). Designing Action-based Exergames for Children with Cerebral Palsy. In Proc. of international conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1261-1270

Existing work
•
Rehabilitation
–
Luna-Oliva L., Ortiz-Gutiérrez R.M., Cano-De la Cuerda R., Piédrola R.M., Alquacil-Diego I.M., Sánchez-Camarero C., Martínez-Culebras M.C. (2013). Kinect Xbox 360 as a therapeutic modality for children with cerebral palsy in a school environment: a preliminary study. Journal of NeuroRehabilitation, 33(4), 513-521

Existing work
•
Learning postures and gestures
–
Casas X., Herrera G., Coma I., Fernández M. (2012). A Kinect-based Augmented Reality System for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. GRAPP/IVAPP, pp 440-446. ScieTePress

Issues
•
Accessibility
–
motor disabilities may hinder the use of applications beyond the physical interaction
•
Impact
–
gap between research development and its applicability in schools
•
Adaptation
–
each child has specific, individual needs

Organization
Social skills
Family
Education
Evaluation
Interactions + Technology
Adaptation

Organization
Social skills
Family
Education
Evaluation
Interactions
+
Technology
Adaptation
Which technology? Which skill?

Specialized State school
•
Educational program
Learning Areas
•
Autonomy
•
Sensory integration
•
Participation within the environment
•
Motor skills
•
Language / Audition
•
Communication / Expressive language
•
Music
•
Health

•
Educational program
Learning Areas
•
Autonomy
•
Sensory integration
•
•
Motor skills
•
Language / Audition
•
•
Music
•
Health
Body skills

Body skills
•
Positions / Balance
•
Sensation / Perception
•
Proprioception
•
Visual / Auditory stimulation

•
Game device for Xbox
•
Interaction with the body
•
Multi-player
•
Compact
•
Cheap
•
Small resolution
•
Little precision
What is the Microsoft Kinect?

•
Educational program
Learning Areas
•
Autonomy
•
Sensory integration
•
•
Motor skills
•
Language / Audition
•
•
Music
•
Health
Creativity

Creativity
•
Music
•
Painting
•
Imagination
•
Corporal expression

Objectives
•
all children would be able to interact with activities regardless of their motor skills
•
provoke interest and motivation for children working on educational aspects

To take into account
•Must work individually or in mini-group
•To promote active participation
•Each child has his own challenges, needs
•Need different kind of applications
•Each child has his own motor skills
•Need different ways of interaction

Objective 1: Make the application accessible to all
•
User profile
•
Adapt the Graphics User Interfaces (GUIs)
–
Use of WIMP to interact
•
Windows
•
Icons
•
Menus
•
Pointers

How to adapt the GUIs?
•
How to access all the part of the screen?
–
Windows & Pointers

•
How to activate a button?
–
Icons

•
How to activate a menu?
–
Menus

•
How to navigate through a menu?
–
Menus

•
How to activate a state?

Objective 2: How to motivate children
•
“Painting” activity

•
“Discover an image” activity

•
“Creating music” activity

Case studies
•
6 Children (4 boys and 2 girls)
•
3 sessions (1 per week)
•
Setup:

Case studies
Name
Age
Cognitive age
Cognitive disability
Motor disability
Mr. Brown
15
8-9
Intellectual disabilities
Oppositional defiant disorder
-

Mr. Brown
•
20 min / session
•
Drawing a house with the same colour
•
Drawing a house with different colours
•
Choosing a musical instrument
•
Playing specific sequences of notes

Mr. Brown
•
Personal objectives
–
Regulation of his conduct
–
Expression of emotions
–
Interact with the body
–
Understanding and execution
of an order
–Encouraging the use of technology
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3

Case studies
Name
Age
Cognitive age
Motor disability
Mr. Brown
15
8-9
-
Mr. White
15
7-8
Cerebral palsy
Tetra-paresis (wheelchair)

Mr. White
•
15 min / session
•
Clearing partially the screen
•
Discovering the content
•
Answering the questions

Mr. White
•
Personal objectives
–
Knowledge of the topic of the class
–
–
–
Encouraging the use of technology
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3

Case studies
Name
Age
Cognitive age
Motor disability
Mr. Brown
15
8-9
-
Mr. White
15
7-8
Cerebral palsy
Mr. Orange
14
7-8
Degenerative muscular dystrophy

Mr. Orange
•
15 min / session
•
Choosing a musical instrument
•
Playing specific sequences of notes

Mr. Orange
•
Personal objectives
–
–
–
Understanding and execution
of an order
–
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3

Case studies
Name
Age
Cognitive age
Motor disability
Mr. Brown
15
8-9
-
Mr. White
15
7-8
Cerebral palsy
Mr. Orange
14
7-8
Ms. Blonde
18
4-5
Cognitive and intellectual disabilities
-

Ms. Blonde
•
20 min / session
•
Drawing circles with one hand
•
Drawing circles with the other hand
•
Drawing circles with both hands
•
•
o
classmate
o
event she had participated in

Ms. Blonde
•
Personal objectives
–
Knowledge in plastic art
–
Show interest
–
Show self esteem
–
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3

Case studies
Name
Age
Cognitive age
Motor disability
Mr. Brown
15
8-9
-
Mr. White
15
7-8
Cerebral palsy
Mr. Orange
14
7-8
Ms. Blonde
18
4-5
-
Ms. Pink
20
6-7
Cerebral palsy
Difficulties to execute voluntary movement (wheelchair)

Ms. Pink
•
10 min / session
•
•
o
classmate
o
event she had participated in

Ms. Pink
•
Personal objectives
–
Show interest
–
Show self esteem
–
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3

Case studies
Name
Age
Cognitive age
Motor disability
Mr. Brown
15
8-9
-
Mr. White
15
7-8
Cerebral palsy
Mr. Orange
14
7-8
Ms. Blonde
18
4-5
-
Ms. Pink
20
6-7
Cerebral palsy
Difficulties to execute voluntary movement (wheelchair)
Mr. Blue
8
6 months
Cerebral palsy
Partial control of the arms (wheelchair)

Mr. Blue
•
30 min / session
•
•
Discovering a classmate

Mr. Blue
•
Personal objectives
–
Motivation in using arms
–
Recognition of the person
–
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3

Discussion
•
Objective 1
•
all children would be able to interact with activities regardless their motor skills
–
5 out of 6 children interacted without difficulties
–
Interaction techniques fit the different needs
–
Mr. White was willing to improve the control of his movements
–
Kinect can be used as adaptive assistive technology

Discussion
•
Objective 2
•
provoke interest and motivation to children in working educational aspects
–
Simple interfaces to motivate
–
Almost all children were willing to participate
–
Teachers preferred the “discovering an image” activity
–
The activity should be customizable by the teachers in order to adapt it to the children needs

Thank you!
Any questions?
Benoît Bossavit, Alfredo Pina benoit.bossavit@unavarra.es Public University of Navarre, Spain

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