Serious Games for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) prevalence rates are increasing and serious games have shown a valuable potential to aid the treatment of autistic individuals. Hence, a Systematic Literature Review was conducted aiming at categorizing serious games for ASD children regarding which skills they aim to develop, how their activities were operationalized, and which customization options they provide to users. Our results showed that a large number of serious games aimed at developing distinct skills in ASD children have been proposed, with their main focus being on social and socio-emotional skills. Nonetheless, for each skill we characterize the existing games according to their features, that is the platform they are developed for, I/O devices used, required users’ action, audiovisual elements, and number of players. We also identify strategies adopted in the games regarding specific features and skills that emerged from the analysis. Finally, our results highlight that offering broader customization options in the games could expand their applicability and utility to their users. This work provides a thorough examination of research on games for ASD children, contributing both to researchers interested in the topic, by identifying existing contributions and open issues for research, and to professionals interested in developing serious games for this public.