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Using a Gesture-based videogame to support eye-hand coordination and pre-literacy skills of children with down syndrome

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Abstract

Children with Down syndrome (DS) have deficits in eye-hand coordination skills. Deficits in eye-hand coordination could negatively impact the acquisition of literacy skills. This paper presents the evaluation of BeeSmart, a gesture-based videogame for supporting eye-hand coordination and pre-literacy skills. The aim of this work is to investigate whether BeeSmart has the potential to support eye-hand coordination and pre-literacy skills of children with DS. A 10-week study with seven children with DS and two psychotherapists is presented. The results indicate that BeeSmart was perceived as a potential tool to support eye-hand coordination and pre-literacy skills. Three out of seven participants improved their eye-hand coordination and pre-literacy skills to some degree. The evaluation study also revealed some improvements that should be made to BeeSmart, such as a reward counter for children with DS with a higher cognitive level. More game sessions with BeeSmart is required to investigate at what degree of BeeSmart improves eye-hand coordination and pre-literacy skills of children with DS.

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Notes

  1. Literacy is an activity based on written and spelling systems.

  2. Gross motor coordination is the degree to which visual perception and body movements are well coordinated [33]

  3. Eye-hand coordination is also known as fine-motor coordination.

  4. For a description of the initial design of BeeSmart, and an initial usability testing evaluation, see [2]. The current paper presents a re-designed version of BeeSmart and a 10-week evaluation of the videogame.

  5. http://unity3d.com

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the participants and staff from CENTRO DOWN. This research was partially funded by the Sonora Institute of Technology (ITSON) through the PROFAPI program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC), Ensenada, Mexico

    Karina Caro

  2. Sonora Institute of Technology (ITSON), Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico

    Ivan Alejandro Encinas-Monroy, Veronica Lizeth Amado-Sanchez, Oscar Ivan Islas-Cruz, Edgar Armando Ahumada-Solorza & Luis A. Castro

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  1. Karina Caro
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  2. Ivan Alejandro Encinas-Monroy
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  3. Veronica Lizeth Amado-Sanchez
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  4. Oscar Ivan Islas-Cruz
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Correspondence to Karina Caro.

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Caro, K., Encinas-Monroy, I.A., Amado-Sanchez, V.L. et al. Using a Gesture-based videogame to support eye-hand coordination and pre-literacy skills of children with down syndrome. Multimed Tools Appl 79, 34101–34128 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-020-09452-x

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