Model for Design of Serious Game for Rehabilitation in Children with Cochlear Implant

Abstract

This paper presents a model based on Auditory-verbal therapy, which is carried out with deaf children who have benefited from a cochlear implant. These children must learn to acquire listening skills to develop their language. It is the speech therapist who helps the children during the rehabilitation process. A serious game could therefore help in the process of acquiring listening skills, wherein play activities are integrated but have a therapeutic effect. A model is presented here for the design of such a game. This model is based on an analysis of different types of game-therapy-player relationships, to identify the mechanics of the game and reliably build player profiles. All the inquiries are aimed at identifying different aspect between different types of game-therapy-player; to do this, 12 children from the Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, in Cali, Colombia participated, the children ranging from 7 to 11 years of age, all with a cochlear implant, where were analyzed a set of games for PC oriented toward speech therapy. The evaluations were made to identify different aspects like: users, game and pedagogical, in each action undertaken by the child on interact with the game. Finally it recreates a story through the character called Phonak who has become lost in a planet called Sounds and has to learn to listen in order to find his family. In turn, the game will help to develop not only speech and language skills but also cognitive ones. In this light, a serious game was put forward aimed at attracting the child’s attention.