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International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance

GALA 2017: Games and Learning Alliance pp 54–63Cite as

Sinbad and the Magic Cure: A Serious Game for Children with ASD and Auditory Hypersensitivity

Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNISA,volume 10653)

Abstract

Serious games (SG) are part of a range of technologies that can be used for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Typically, these games target communication skills, social interaction and speech. There are, however, few SGs for autistic children which have the aim of helping to moderate sensory hypersensitivity. This paper presents an SG which aims to target this area. A set of critical sounds was heuristically determined, and implemented in an interactive SG for reducing auditory hypersensitivity (i.e. over-sensitivity to environmental sounds) in children with ASD. The game, Sinbad and the Magic Cure, is designed for Android devices, and is intended for children aged 8–11.

Keywords

  • Serious games
  • Game-based therapy
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Moderating sensory hypersensitivity
  • Auditory hypersensitivity
  • Hyperacusis

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Notes

  1. 1.

    www.vision-play.com/product/ease-funhouse-tresure-hunt.

  2. 2.

    www.freesound.org.

  3. 3.

    www.reaper.fm.

  4. 4.

    www.unity3d.com.

  5. 5.

    www.wollamshram.ca/1001.

  6. 6.

    www.autodesk.com/.

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Acknowledgments

This research was fully funded by The King Abdullah Scholarship Program (2014–2017). We would like to thank the children, parents, and teachers for participating in this research. We would also like to thank June Grindley, and Neelam Jhakra, Dr. Sandy Louchart, and Brian Loranger for their feedback and suggestions. In particular, we would like to thank the depute head teacher and other staff from the participating school, Creatovators CIC, Strathclyde Autistic Society Club, Glasgow Science Center, and the School of Simulation and Visualisation of the Glasgow School of Art for all their help in conducting this research. Special thanks for Victor Portela Romero, Louise Dolan, Hajara Alfa, Akash Angral, Dr. Polina Zioga, Dr. Jessica Argo, and Sawitree Wisetchat for their invaluable supports.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The School of Simulation and Visualisation, The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK

    Hanan Makki Zakari & Matthieu Poyade

  2. The School of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    David Simmons

Authors
  1. Hanan Makki Zakari
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  2. Matthieu Poyade
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  3. David Simmons
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hanan Makki Zakari .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    João Dias

  2. University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Pedro A. Santos

  3. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Remco C. Veltkamp

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Zakari, H.M., Poyade, M., Simmons, D. (2017). Sinbad and the Magic Cure: A Serious Game for Children with ASD and Auditory Hypersensitivity. In: Dias, J., Santos, P., Veltkamp, R. (eds) Games and Learning Alliance. GALA 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10653. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71940-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71940-5_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71939-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71940-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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