Integration of gamification to assist literacy in children with special educational needs

Abstract

Open Archive Toulouse Archive OuverteOATAO is an open access repository that collects the work of Toulouse researchers and makes it freely available over the web where possible To cite this version:Abstract Nowadays, the use of mobile applications is gaining popularity among people, spreading to different areas. Specifically, the use of mobile applications has boomed in the field of education, with the increasing variety of applications in the application stores (PlayStore, AppStore, etc) that address specific problems of stories becoming increasingly common in the market like: problems of reading, writing, mathematics and other topics.On the other hand, the special education is an area of attention to children with special educational needs such as attention deficit, intellectual disability, speech problems, among other problems. Specifically, children who have problems in literacy with special educational need, face a challenge during their learning process of reading and writing. Because of this, special education has begun to incorporate the use of technology through the use of mobile applications in the classroom. In this context, we believe that teaching strategies can be adapted to the development of competences, both specific and transversal, in special education students, while at the same time they can increase students motivation during their learning process. These elements are known as gamification techniques.There is a seies of gamification techniques that can be incorporated into the learning process in children with special educational needs.The present work exposes the gamification techniques incorporated in a playful way in mobile applications, as well as a methodological proposal for the integration of these techniques in special education enviroments, making a case study in conjunction with teachers and special education children. First section of the article consits of a brief introduction to the reader on the subject of the gamification techniques, in wich they are found and some examples of gamification techniques used. Section II exposes the problem that can be solved in this work, section III presents the methodology used for the preparation of this work, describing each of the stages by wich it is composed. Section IV presents the case study that was conducted in conjuntion with special education children and finally section V discusss the results and conclusions that wre obtained from the work done.

The use of gamification to improve reading and writing abilities in Primary Schools

“…È stato dimostrato che la gamification permette l'acquisizione di competenze sia specifiche che trasversali, e favorisce l'aumento della motivazione durante il processo di apprendimento, fattore indispensabile per lo sviluppo della conoscenza. In particolare, tale strategia didattica risulta essere efficace sia con bambini a sviluppo tipico (Klopfer, Sheldon, Perry, & Chen, 2012) che con ragazzi che presentano Bisogni educativi speciali (BES) (Cuschieri et al, 2014;Dymora & Niemiec, 2019;Gooch et al, 2016;Ifigenia et al, 2018). Questo interesse per l'uso della gamification con ragazzi con difficoltà scolastiche è incrementato notevolmente negli ultimi anni poiché la maggior parte di questi studenti presentano un atteggiamento demotivato verso la scuola e il processo educativo, e delle difficoltà maggiori durante l'apprendimento della letto-scrittura e del calcolo.…”

“…Sono presenti molti studi in letteratura che riportano come l'uso di applicazioni basate sulla gamification su tablet abbia una risposta positiva anche da parte degli studenti con BES e un maggior divertimento riportato dagli stessi nel processo di apprendimento della lettoscrittura (Ifigenia et al, 2018). Oltre al gruppo sopracitato con Disturbi del Neurosviluppo, in questa ricerca è stato individuato anche per il gruppo clinico, ossia con DSA (Figura 9), un miglioramento per tutte le prove di lettura, specialmente nella velocità (p-value parole: 0.002; p-value non-parole: 0.03; p-value brano: 0.001), ma anche nell'accuratezza di lettura nelle parole (p-value: 0.03) e non-parole (p-value: 0.001).…”

“…Ad esempio, Ratnawatj e colleghi (2020) hanno dimostrato come il suo utilizzo in un contesto di piccolo gruppo abbia allenato le capacità cooperative, nonché migliorato lo spirito competitivo tra i team e le capacità di riconoscere le emozioni dei pari. Tali strategie didattiche risultano essere efficaci per lo sviluppo di life skills sia con bambini a sviluppo tipico che con ragazzi che presentano Bisogni Educativi Speciali (Cuschieri, Khaled, Farrugia, Martinez, & Yannakakis, 2014;Dymora & Niemiec, 2019;Ifigenia, Jaime, Julien, & Cesar, 2018).…”

AliCharlie: Um Jogo Sério para Avaliar a Aprendizagem de Alunos com Deficiência Intelectual no uso de Periféricos

“…Apesar de existirem várias técnicas de gamificação nos games, Ifigenia et al (2018) indicaram as técnicas mais utilizadas em jogos direcionados ao público com deficiência intelectual, sendo elas: pontos, classificação (ranking), feedback, níveis, desafios e coleção. Segundo Colpani (2015), a aplicação da gamificação no desenvolvimento do aplicativo AR+G Atividades Educacionais, para deficientes intelectuais, gera resultados satisfatórios, aprimorando as habilidades dos alunos.…”

Learn by distance: advice for choosing an effective and inclusive e- Learning platform

“…Specifically, by "gamification" we mean using game-like elements (like points, levels, trophies, achievement badges, leaderboards and storyboard), also called game mechanics, in non-game environments. These elements would push the individual, especially SEND's students, to move forward to the next stage and stay involved in the activities, furthering the very process of inclusion in a community setting and develop an effective learning process (Dafne Ifigenia et al, 2018;Gooch et al, 2016;Muntean, 2011;Sitra et al, 2017). All this taking into account that an excessive use of social elements, such as leaderboards, should be avoided because, in some cases, it could disfavour the participation of less performing students (Huang & Soman, 2013).…”