Abstract
This chapter describes an interactive virtual reality (VR) serious game for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to learn life skills. The work is a result from a collaboration between Nanyang Technological University and a special needs school in Singapore. Teaching children with ASD some tasks of life skills may be challenging. For example, learning to take a shower can be a struggle for children with ASD as they have difficulty understanding the concept of hygiene. This work uses the Microsoft Kinect to provide players with an engaging experience, while teaching them the steps to take a shower in a VR environment. The experiment has been conducted with six boys around the age of 8 from the special needs school. It is observed the experiment is very successful, eliciting excitement and interactivity for the students to learn life skills such as shower taking.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Sevin, J.A., Rieske, R.D., Matson, J.L.: A review of behavioral strategies and support considerations for assisting persons with difficulties transitioning from activity to activity. Rev. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 2, 329–342 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-015-0056-7
Thurm, A., Farmer, C., Salzman, E., Lord, C., Bishop, S.: State of the field: differentiating intellectual disability from autism spectrum disorder. Front Psychiatry 10, 256 (2019). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00526
Liu, G.Z., Wu, N.W., Chen, Y.W.: Identifying emerging trends for implementing learning technology in special education: a state-of-the-art review of selected articles published in 2008–2012. Res. Dev. Disabil. 34(10), 3618–4362 (2013)
Cosgrave, G.: Social stories. https://www.educateautism.com/social-stories.html#.U1PswvmSxs4 (2010)
Davies, C.: Using visual schedules: a guide for parents. The Reporter 14(1), 18–22 (2008)
Natasha, P., O’Brien, P.: Play therapy-reaching the child with autism. Int. J. Special Educ. 26(1), 80–87 (2011)
Zakari, H.M., Ma, M., Simmons, D.: A review of serious games for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In: International Conference on Serious Games Development and Applications, Berlin, Germany (2014)
Tsikinas, S., Xinogalos, S., Satratzemi, M., Kartasidou, L.: Using serious games for promoting blended learning for people with intellectual disabilities and autism: literature versus reality. In: International Conference on Interactive Mobile Communication Technologies and Learning, pp 563–574. Greece (2017)
Cai, Y. (ed): 3D Immersive and Interactive Learning, Springer, Berlin (2013).
Cai, Y., van Joolingen, W., Walker, Z. (eds.): VR, Simulations and Serious Games for Education. Springer, Berlin (2019)
Cai, Y., Chiew, R., Nay, Z.T., Indhumathi, C., Huang, L.: Design and development of VR learning environments for children with ASD. Intera. Learn. Environ. 25(8), 1098–1109 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2017.1282877
DiPietro, J., Kelemen, A., Liang, Y., Sik-Lanyi, C.: Computer-and robot-assisted therapies to aid social and intellectual functioning of children with autism spectrum disorder. Medicina 54(440) (2019)
Boylea, E.A., Hainey, T., Connolly, T.M., Gray, G., Earp, J., Ott, M., Lim, T., Ninaus, M., Ribeiro, C., Pereira, J.: An update to the systematic literature review of empirical evidence of the impacts and outcomes of computer games and serious games. Comput. Educ. 94, 178–192 (2016)
Molna, A., Kostkova, P.: Learning about hygiene and antibiotic resistance through mobile games. In: International Conference on Digital Health, pp. 95–99. Lyon, France (2018).
Shimada, S., Funahashi, K., Ito, K., Tanase, Y., Iwazaki, K.: VR hand hygiene training system that visualizes germs to be washed and removed. In: IEEE Global Conference on Consumer Electronics. Nagoya, Japan (2017)
Klinker, K., Fries, V., Wiesche, M., Krcmar, H.: CatCare: designing a serious game to foster hand hygiene compliance in health care facilities. In: International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology. Karlsruhe, Germany (2017)
Farrell, D., Kostkova, P., Lecky, D., McNulty, C.: Teaching children hygiene using problem based learning: the story telling approach to games based learning. In: 2nd Workshop on Story-Telling Approach to Educational Games (STEG), Aachen, Germany (2009)
Lingle, J.: Teaching hygiene without meltdowns. Autism Educates. https://www.autismeducates.com/2018/11/06/meltdowns/ (2018)
Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California: Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit (FAAST). https://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/faast/ (2010)
Zhang, Z.: Microsoft kinect sensor and its effect. IEEE Multim. 19(2), 4–10 (2012)
Filkov, R.: Kinect v2 examples with MS-SDK and nuitrack SDK. RF Solutions. https://rfilkov.com/2014/08/01/kinect-v2-with-ms-sdk/ (2014)
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the students, teachers, staffs, principal, and parents of AWWA School for their support, help, and feedback in this research work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Teoh, S.E.M., Cao, Q., Cai, Y. (2021). Learning to Take a Shower Through VR Serious Gaming. In: Cai, Y., Cao, Q. (eds) When VR Serious Games Meet Special Needs Education. Gaming Media and Social Effects. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6942-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6942-9_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-33-6941-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-33-6942-9
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)