Abstract:

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) may have difficulties in performing daily living tasks. Among other daily living tasks, independent oral hygiene is an essential life skill for people with ID. Four children in a special education class participated in the experiment. We employed the Kinect sensor to gamify oral hygiene skills. Specifically, a multiple baseline design was adopted to demonstrate the relation between game-based intervention and oral hygiene independently. Data showed that the percentage of correct task steps increased among all four participants. Social validity results showed the parents considered the video game was very useful and it had helped their children learn the oral hygiene effectively. Although the game is a highly accepted training tool for school-use, it currently remains error-prone. A more technically robust system will likely result in higher participant motivation and task performance.

According to the teachers, participants enjoyed playing the video game and found the game to be an enjoyable motivator. The teachers agreed that the video game improved independence and made teaching easier. The teachers expressed a wish for more time and resources to create additional video games for their students. They also found the video game to be up-to-date with current teaching methods. Teachers would like to use this method with their other students to reduce direct verbal prompting and other individual instruction. The teachers commented that education should include more technology where possible.

Keywords:

Oral hygiene, intellectual disability, video game, Kinect, service learning.