Role of Serious Game in Improving Self-care Ability: One Case Study on Autistic Children

Abstract

Background: It has been confirmed that serious games improve the social and cognitive abilities of autistic children, while there is little research on their effectiveness in enhancing the self-care skills of these children. This study aims to explore and verify whether training based on serious games can effectively improve the self-care abilities of autistic children. Subjects and Methods: Based on autistic children’s needs for personal dressing skills, 3 12-year old autistic children of similar intelligence were selected for teaching intervention with the theme of “personal dressing”via the animation demonstration of social stories in the originally developed serious game. A single-participant & cross-participant multiple-baseline experimental design was employed to observe and record the participants’ behaviors including adjusting dress according to the occasion, changing shoes based on activity needs, and dressing or undressing according to temperature and weather conditions. Quantitative analysis of C-statistics, and qualitative analysis of visual check, were conducted in the study. Results: The results showed that for target behavior 1, the Z-values in C-statistics for the three participants were 1.93, 3.53, and 1.28, respectively; for target behavior 2, the Z-values were 2.45, 2.6, and 1.88, respectively; and for target behavior 3, the Z-values were 3.7, 2.12, and 3.06, respectively. Eight out of the nine data points showed significant differences in C-statistics (P<0.05), with one data point potentially not showing significance due to the unfamiliarity with the serious game operation. The Z-values during the maintenance period did not see significant differences, indicating good maintenance of intervention effects. The study results indicate that all three participants showed varying degrees of improvement in the three target behaviors related to dressing adjustments after the intervention, and the intervention effects were well-maintained.Interviews with parents, teachers, and the participants themselves revealed that the serious game was well-liked by the autistic participants and meanwhile positively influenced their compliance. Conclusions: This study not only confirmed the effectiveness of serious games in enhancing the self-care abilities of autistic children, but also explored the positive impact of integrating the social storytelling and participatory design on the intervention effects of serious games.