User experience study on mobile numerical application for children with mental disabilities

Abstract

Mobile technology has expanded the use of information technology; it is now more than just a communication device. The use of mobile technology has also become more imperative to the education industry. Studies show that the use of mobile technology not only can aid the teaching and learning for the mainstream classrooms, but also can assist the teaching and learning of the mentally disabled students. The children with Down syndrome (DS) have special needs in their teaching and learning environments. Mobile learning environment can assists the DS children to be more focus during their learning activities. This paper presents about the user experience study of a mobile numerical application for Down syndrome children using MAIL-SinD as a prototype for mobile numerical application. The prototype was tested to nine DS students from Ipoh Down syndrome Centre (IDSC). This paper propose further enhancement of the prototype due to low mean score of the analysis on the user experience testing.

Technology-enhanced support for children with Down Syndrome: A systematic literature review

“…The main purpose of technology has remained to support children with Down Syndrome in the development of different skills. Numeracy skills [86,103], speech and language [62,79,85], enhancing short term memory skills [107], emotional and social skills [108]. As the review focused on children with Down Syndrome the focus lies in developing skills needed in early year education.…”

“…The purpose of this review was to examine the etiology of Down Syndrome only, during the coding process we came across papers that used participants with DS exclusively, and participants with DS in comparison with participant such as Autistic Spectrum Disorder [83][84][85][86][87][88], or compared DS with Intellectual Disability [75,[89][90][91][92], Neurodevelopmental Disorder (NDD) [93][94][95] or DS with Neurotypical Peers (NT) [46,67,75]. These were the broader terms that we came across during the coding process.…”

“…Applications were mostly software programs designed for mobile devices or computers. There were 12 applications designed to support cognition, 2 were to improve speech [79,85], numeracy or mathematical skills [86,102,103], design and evaluation of use of MathDS [100,101].…”