Design And Implementation Of Educational Games For Children With Autism

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder, children with autism usually have some difficulties in social interaction, and are characterized by restricted, repetitive or stereotyped behavior. Due to the fact that the number of children diagnosed with autism has been increasing dramatically, more attention has been paid to the children with autism. The cause of autism is unclear, some researchers argue that autism is strongly associated with genetics or environmental causes, and there is no effective medicine for autism. Hence, early intervention for children with autism is very important. Research on intervention for autistic children is mainly based on educational, psychological and medical methods. Studies have shown that children with autism prefer to communicate with electronic equipment than people. Based on the computer’s advantages of safety, predictability, repetition and effectiveness of human-computer interactive games for children to learn, this thesis has carried out an early intervention study for children with autism based on the computer educational games.This study is based on the child development theory of child with autism and typical developing child, as well as the Autism Rating Scale PEP (Psycho-educational Profile), The games are designed according to the characteristics of children with autism, and are implemented using computer technologies. The tests have been conducted in the special school. This work develops an intelligent learning method to improve the social communication skills for children with autism.This study aims to improve the social interaction skills for children with autism, games are designed to improve the abilities of attention, joint attention, following instruction and social rules. Games are implemented in Visual Studio2010development environment, with C++and Qt4.8.3. Experiment has been conducted using Q Sensor, observation and interviews methods in Linjie and Haidian special schools in Wuhan and Beijing, respectively. This study has shown that computer-based educational games are effective for early intervention for children with autism.