e-Quino: an Interactive Videogame to Complement Equine Therapy

Javier Díaz

Claudia Queiruga

Tomás Arce

CEDICA Centro de Equitación para Personas

con Discapacidad y Carenciadas

CEDICA is a provincial reference center in equine-assisted

therapy and activities located at the racetrack of the city of

La Plata, Argentina (http://cedica.com.ar/).

CEDICA is a nonprofit association founded in 1994.

Its MISSION is to equalize opportunities and favor

family reintegration, schooling, professional insertion

and integral improvement in the quality of life of its

patients.

Currently, CEDICA has over 100 student-patients, mostly

children and teenagers, from all over La Plata and nearby

cities, and from very different sociocultural backgrounds.

The rehabilitation activities in CEDICA take part once a

week.

Videogames in Health

Serious games dealing with health issues are

a growing field.

PlayMancer Project: it is an initiative to develop a video

game for treating specific mental disorders. The game is

specially developed to help patients recognize their

emotions, regain self-control, train certain movements and

relax specific muscles.

iSocial Project: it is a three dimensional virtual learning

environment for teaching social competence to youths who

have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders

(ASD).

LIFEisGAME: It is a serious game to teach people with

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to recognize facial

emotions.

e-Quino: an Interactive Videogame to Complement Equine Therapy

e-Quino is a video game that recreates equine

therapy performed with children and teenagers

with neurological development disorders at

CEDICA.

Goal: to recreate the feeling of well-being equine

therapy gives to CEDICA student-patients,

whenever the actual activity cannot be

performed.

e-Quino is being developed by a multidisciplinary

team composed of highly-trained therapists with a

background in equine-assisted activities and

therapy, educators, doctors, programmers and

designers specialized in 3D art.

e-Quino: an Interactive Videogame to Complement Equine Therapy

Activity 1: the player guides the horse, walking, past a mound

e-Quino: an Interactive Videogame to Complement Equine Therapy

Activity 2: the player must guide the horse, this time at jog,

through the main course without changing the gait

e-Quino: an Interactive Videogame to Complement Equine Therapy

Activity 3: the player rides the horse through a fenced area

e-Quino: an Interactive Videogame to Complement Equine Therapy

Activity 4: the player chooses an object of a certain color

from a basket and takes it to the indicator of the same color

across the field

e-Quino: an Interactive Videogame to Complement Equine Therapy

Activity 5: the player zigzags through dice on the ground

e-Quino: an Interactive Videogame to Complement Equine Therapy

Activity 6: the player tosses three balls to a ring located at

the height of the rider

e-Quino: an Interactive Videogame to Complement Equine Therapy

Each activity provides congratulatory feedback to the player to emphasize their achievement.

e-Quino: an Interactive Videogame to Complement Equine Therapy

We are currently developing a pilot

test with 24 student-patients

classified in: 8 diagnosed with Down

Syndrome, 6 with Pervasive

Developmental Disorder, 7 with

mental retardation and 3 with

developmental delay

e-Quino: an Interactive Videogame to Complement Equine Therapy

e-Quino shows the important role that technology such as

serious games and immersive reality can play for inclusion of

people with different needs in our society.