Education Game Prototype
No two children are alike and no child will develop at the exact same rate as another. Knowing the child development milestones is key in recognizing when there is a problem and is very important for early intervention. According the the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association (ASHA), 64% of parents are unaware of early warning signs. The ability to properly refer a child to therapy is in the best interest of the child.
With the Identify the Signs game, parents and child-care professionals will learn the signs of typical progression and signs that need referral. Players will listen to a child’s speech in an environment where they can replay until they are comfortable making the decision on whether or not the child needs to be referred to speech or language therapy.
Sample Intermediate Level Play
Evidence-Based Design Elements:
We incorporated the Self-Explanation Principle for Games in our prototype. This principle states that people learn better from games when they are asked to provide an explanations for their actions.
Research conducted by Cheryl Johnson and Richard Mayer (2010) determined that a possible boundary condition is that the rules remains as un-intrusive as possible. During the study, students performed better when they selected the correct reason for making the choices from a drop down menu as compared with students who typed in their explanation in an on-screen text box. Johnson and Mayer propose this increases deeper reflection on the academic content, or generative knowledge.