Apraxia World: A Speech Therapy Game for Children with Speech Sound Disorders Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • 2018 Association for Computing Machinery. This paper presents Apraxia World, a remote therapy tool for speech sound disorders that integrates speech exercises into an engaging platformer-style game. In Apraxia World, the player controls the avatar with virtual buttons/joystick, whereas speech input is associated with assets needed to advance from one level to the next. We tested performance and child preference of two strategies for delivering speech exercises: during each level, and after it. Most children indicated that doing exercises after completing each level was less disruptive and preferable to doing exercises scattered through the level. We also found that children liked having perceived control over the game (character appearance, exercise behavior). Our results indicate that (i) a familiar style of game successfully engages children, (ii) speech exercises function well when decoupled from game control, and (iii) children are willing to complete required speech exercises while playing a game they enjoy.

name of conference

  • Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children

published proceedings

  • PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2018 ACM CONFERENCE ON INTERACTION DESIGN AND CHILDREN (IDC 2018)

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Hair, A., Monroe, P., Ahmed, B., Ballard, K. J., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R.

citation count

  • 21

complete list of authors

  • Hair, Adam||Monroe, Penelope||Ahmed, Beena||Ballard, Kirrie J||Gutierrez-Osuna, Ricardo

editor list (cited editors)

  • Giannakos, M. N., Jaccheri, L., & Divitini, M.

publication date

  • January 2018