Learning Through Games: An Approach for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder During COVID-19 Pandemic

Nurul Hidayah Mat Zain, Et Al

doi:10.17762/turcomat.v12i5.2196

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to increased online learning for students, including children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, the need for social distancing has interrupted the delivery of continuing education for ASD children. ASD emerges in early childhood, which may cause interruptions in numerous essential areas of progress in daily life. Therefore, we proposed a mobile game, namely Basic Daily Life (BasLife) game, for ASD children. The game offered positive affection and an enjoyable experience in learning sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodology was implemented to produce the BasLife game. The RAD methodology consists of four phases: Requirement Planning Phase, User Design Phase, Development Phase, and Cutover Phase. The EGame Flow Model was applied as a guideline to develop an enjoyable game during the User Design Phase and Development Phase. Keenly, the study results produce theBasLifegame as a learning approach for ASD children that would tackle the interpersonal skills and create an enjoyable learning experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are detected through symptoms such as insufficiency in repetitive patterns of activities[1]
ASD children can practice slowly improve their daily life generalization by developing this game.This project aims to conduct a game that consists of enjoyable elements at the same time to polish the ASD children with basic daily life skills and nurture the interest in learning skills of basic daily life
The Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodology consists of four phases: Requirement Planning Phase, User Design Phase, Development Phase, and Cutover Phase

Summary

Introduction

Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are detected through symptoms such as insufficiency in repetitive patterns of activities[1]. It will develop an advantage when professionally designed programs help ASD children attain skills in increasing adaptive functioning[12] These mobile games will support the learning in the core areas of difficulty characteristics such as social communications and interactions [5]. The ASD children who are playing the game will be encouraged to combine knowledge from different areas to choose a solution or to decide at one point [13]. This kind of learning process relates to achievement, imitating, understanding, and applying. Being motivated is the feature of practical learning that needs to be maintained through feedback responses and participation to take place for intended learning

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Methods

Results

Conclusion