Blitzmerker: Learning Idioms with a Mobile Game

© author(s) of these slides including research results from the KOM research network and TU Darmstadt; otherwise it is specified at the respective slide

3-Jun-15

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Steinmetz

KOM - Multimedia Communications Lab

Gamedays 2015

Blitzmerker: Learning Idioms

with a Mobile Game

Laila Shoukry

Laila Shoukry, M.Sc.

Polona Caserman

KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 2

Serious Games Group


Autism and Social Interaction – The Problem

lutherwood.ca/

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Most common cognitive disability

Prevalence rate of 1 in 88 children

Mainly affects social skills, communication

skills and interests

Deficits in Social Interaction

Lack knowledge of how to properly

interact

Lose motivation in social interaction

Develop social anxiety One factor: inability

to understand abstract concepts during

conversations difficulty responding to

metaphors and symbols

msnkarthik.com


Understanding Proverbs

In German: Die Kuh vom Eis holen. What it means: Escape a risky situation.


Autism and Social Interaction – Intervention

behaviorfrontiers.com

Training Social Skills

Improvement in response to exposure and

training

But: decreased motivation increases social

gap Early Intervention to avoid escalation

ABA: Applied Behavioral Therapy -

individualized coaching via therapists

Why Simulations and Games?

Training social skills in non-real world

situations

Encouraging environments with reduced

risk of failure and quick reward [1,2]

Inherently interesting for Autistic children

[3]

Less expensive for everyday use [4]

tdlc.ucsd.edu


Software for Autism

Teachtown.com

Success

Popular applications more accessible to a

wider audience [4]

Practicing social and cognitive skills shown

to be effective [5]

use of multimedia to simulate real-life

situations shows positive effects [4]

Design Requirements

Using motivating visual and auditory

stimuli [5,6]

Adaptive, individualized training [7,8]

Different Configuration Options [8,9]

Progress Statistics and Parent/Teacher

Dashboards

Teachtown.com

socialcluesgame.com


Blitzmerker

Idea

Learning the meanings of different proverbs

Engaging in conversations with different

characters

Quizzes and additional info to improve

understanding

Features

Available for German and English Idioms

Extendable to other languages:

Conversations in xml format

Difficulty Adaptations

Different stories for longer engagement

Encouraging Feedback and Hints

Sound Effects and Interactive Elements


Blitzmerker – Story Structure


Personalization

Configuration Options

Profiles for different users

Choosing Language

Background Image and Music

Color of Text and Buttons

Choose Character

Use Photo as Avatar

Reading Conversations Aloud

Parental Control Options

Set maximum playing time per day

Adapt Feedback and Toggle Sound

Adding timers and bonus points


Logging

Logged Data

Path in the story from start to end

Tapped points on the screen

Time required for each section

Total time played

Attempts to select the right answer

Time needed for each answer

Interruptions of gameplay

Benefits

provide insights for both game design and

player progress evaluation

Insight into game settings, tapped points,

story paths and learning progress


Evaluation

Field Study

12 Children aged 8 to 16

With parents and teachers

Played on Android tablet devices

Questionnaires before and after playing

Observations by researcher and logging

statistics

Expert Evaluation

Teachers and therapists who were also

involved in data collection and game

design

Interviews, attending and observing field

studies and filling out questionnaires


Evaluation – Results

Observations

no difficulty to interact, experience with

mobile devices

motivated each other, compared

achievements and discussed the stories

they played

Showed strong interest and wanted to

continue playing at home

Some design improvements suggested

Questionnaires and Logging

Differences in Abilities and Preferences

high rating for the idea, audio,

comprehensibility and ease of use

Goog rating for content, graphics, control

and fun

75% learned new idioms

Improvements in new iterations


Game available on Google Play


Questions & Contact


References

[1] Mitchell, P., Parsons, S., & Leonard, A. (2007). Using virtual environments for teaching social understanding to

adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 37(3), 589-600.

[2] Kandalaft, M. R., Didehbani, N., Krawczyk, D. C., Allen, T. T., & Chapman, S. B. (2013). Virtual reality social

cognitiontraining for young adults with high-functioning autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,

43(1), 34-44.

[3] Boelte, S. (2009). [The ICF and its meaning for child and adolescent psychiatry]. Zeitschrift fur Kinder-und

Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie, 37(6), 495-497.

[4] Wainer, A. L., & Ingersoll, B. R. (2011). The use of innovative computer technology for teaching social communication to

individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 5(1), 96-107.

[5] Rayner, C., Denholm, C., & Sigafoos, J. (2009). Video-based intervention for individuals with autism: Key questions that

remain unanswered. Research in Autism Spectrum Disor-ders, 3(2), 291-303.

[6] Burckley, E., Tincani, M., & Guld Fisher, A. (2014). An iPad™-based picture and video activity schedule increases

community shopping skills of a young adult with autism spec-trum disorder and intellectual disability. Developmental

neurorehabilitation, (0), 1-6.

[7] Shane, H. C., & Albert, P. D. (2008). Electronic screen media for persons with autism spectrum disorders: Results of a

survey. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 38(8), 1499-1508.

[8] Sehaba, K., Estraillier, P., and Lambert, D.. Interactive educational games for autistic chil-dren with agent-based system.

In Fumio Kishino, Yoshifumi Kitamura, Hirokazu Kato, and Noriko Nagata, editors, Entertainment Computing -

ICEC 2005, volume 3711 of Lec-ture Notes in Computer Science, pages 422–432. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2005.

ISBN 978-3-540-29034-6

[9] Paron-Wildes, A.J.. Sensory Stimulation and Autistic Children. In Implications: A News-letter by Informedesign. Vol. 06

Issue 04, 2007.

Education

Blitzmerker: Learning Idioms with a Mobile Game