You are here:

Serious games to teach social interactions and emotions to individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)
ARTICLE

, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, France ; , Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et Robotiques, France ; , Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry et Centre de Ressource Autisme, France ; , , Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et Robotiques, France ; , Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, France

Computers & Education Volume 113, Number 1, ISSN 0360-1315 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

Abstract

The use of information communication technologies (ICTs) in therapy offers new perspectives for treating many domains in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) because they can be used in many different ways and settings and they are attractive to the patients. We reviewed the available literature on serious games that are used to teach social interactions to individuals with ASD. After screening the Medline, Science Direct and ACM Digital Library databases, we found a total of 31 serious games: 16 that targeted emotion recognition or production and 15 that targeted social skills. There was a significant correlation between the number of reports per year and the year of publication. Serious games appeared promising because they can support training on many different skills and they favour interactions in diverse contexts and situations, some of which may resemble real life. However, the currently available serious games exhibit some limitations: (i) most of them are developed for High-Functioning individuals; (ii) their clinical validation has rarely met the evidence-based medicine standards; (iii) the game design is not usually described; and, (iv) in many cases, the clinical validation and playability/game design are not compatible.Future research agendas should encompass (i) more robust studies in terms of methodology (large samples, control groups, longer treatment periods, follow-up to assess whether changes remain stable, etc.) to assess serious game efficacy; (ii) more collaboration between clinical and computer/game design experts; and (iii) more serious games that are adapted to Low-Functioning ASD individuals.

Citation

Grossard, C., Grynspan, O., Serret, S., Jouen, A.L., Bailly, K. & Cohen, D. (2017). Serious games to teach social interactions and emotions to individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Computers & Education, 113(1), 195-211. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from .

This record was imported from Computers & Education on January 29, 2019. Computers & Education is a publication of Elsevier.

Full text is availabe on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.05.002

Keywords