Inclusive Design

“Inclusive Design is a way of designing products and environments so that they are usable and appealing to everyone regardless of age, ability or circumstance.”

Description of game development

Researching and developing new and interesting games to aid occupational therapists to help learning developments and skills of children who have learning and developmental difficulties.

An example of a game would be a development on the ‘memory game’. Creating tactile memory games for children with visual impairment would develop the awareness of touch and feel, also enabling the child to remember the different tactile surfaces and where they are in the spaces around them.

Initial Thoughts and Concepts

A development on the ‘memory game’.

Creating tactile memory games for children with visual impairment, this would develop the awareness of touch and feel, also enabling the child to remember the different tactile surfaces and where they are in the spaces around them.

Body Shapes

Different cards would have prompts; the child has to copy the image on the card. Images would consist of different hand shapes and body shapes, For example, a fist, clapping, thumbs up etc. There would be three categories of cards, left hand/body, right hand/body and both hands/sides of the body. As these cards got selected the child would have to copy the card a timer would run and they would have to get through as many as possible before the timer ran out. The game could be based on a board game theory and they could roll dice and work their way round board landing on different squares having to pick up different cards from one of the three card options. If the child gets two or more gestures correct they roll the dice and move, getting closer to the finish.

Outcomes

The outcomes of the games will be developed through research, development and a working relationship with an Occupational Therapist. This relationship will produce knowledge and understanding to develop games to meet specific needs. Once gaining this information brainstorming and concept ideas would be developed prototype games with the idea of getting feedback from the therapist and child. This feedback would show how effective the game is and how it interacted with its environment. The games would then be refined and developed so they target the different skills of the child and the areas the OT wishes to access.
Along with the product, developed instructions and outlines of the benefits of the game/s would also be created. These outlines and benefits would be outline in a created website and designed catalogue for distribution.

The Audience

Therapists:

The people that I will be working along side with are the therapists who assess the children to determine their problems and assign specific task that enable the child to develop positive techniques to achieve their goals. The most of my research will be undertaken through Occupational Therapists finding out information from them as to which games are most needed? Do they achieve their goals? Is the game working? Is the game easy?

Child:

The child has an important role within this design process although hopefully they wont know this, they can give feed back regarding the games and how easy/hard they are to play. They can do this not only verbally but also with how their behavior changes towards the various games. They will also communicate how easy the games are to pick up, weather they find them fun and exciting.

Teachers:

Teachers have a similar role to the parents in that they are indirectly involved in the process. Some schools (those in the United Kingdom) have Occupational Therapists within the schools working. So an OT may encourage the teacher to do and use certain games/activities to continue the child’s development.

Parents:

Parents are indirectly involved in the design process through their child being assessed by an OT. Due to ethical issues the parents of the child may have to know that some of the assessment tools that the OT are using have been created by a Design student. Parents may also wish to use the different games at home to further develop the child’s abilities. Feedback from this environment would also help the design process, to see how the game/s worked within a different environment.

Problem Areas for Children

Gross Motor Skills

Gross motor skills are movements that encompass the whole body using coordination, large muscles movements and a wide range of body extensions. These movements use both sides of the body and would encompass activities like running, jumping or throwing etc.

Fine Motor Skills

Small muscle movements often occur in the fingers and thumb, requiring coordination, precise hand-eye coordination and the use of the senses to manipulate various objects and activities. The development of these skills allows one to be able to complete tasks such as writing, drawing, and doing up buttons and playing games such as connect four and Jenga etc.

In Hand Manipulation Skills

Similar to “Fine Motor Skills” but uses the fingers and thumb to manipulate objects while still in the hand. For example rolling dice, Picking up the die and shaking them while within the grasp of the one hand and not letting the dice fall out of the hand.

Bilateral Integration

Bilateral Integration refers to the ability to use both sides of the body in a coordinated manner to complete tasks. It also includes the ability to cross the middle of your body. Examples of this include babies banging two blocks together or a preschooler holding scissors with one hand while manipulating the paper with the other.

Hand Eye Co-ordination

The communication that happens between the hands and the eyes and getting the body to do what the brain wants it to achieve. Games that help achieve these goals are ‘The Memory Game’, Jenga, O’s and X’s etc.

Visual Perception

Allowing your mind to remember visual images and differences, the distances between objects and ones self. Games such as Memory help these skills

Visual Motor Integration

Visual Motor Integration uses the body to manipulate objects and items in ways that the brain requires the use of sight and visual responses. Activities such as copying playing copy cat and handwriting incorporate visual motor integration.

Sensory-motor

Sensing where the body is in relation to space and the surrounding environment, using arms to balance and sensing the need to balance one self. Uses mainly gross motor skills.

Motor Planning

Motor Planning uses the brain to plan gross motor and fine motor movements to achieve specific goals. Games include operation, hop scotch.

Dressing

Dressing one self requires a vast range of skill, movement and cognitive information flowing from the brain to the body. Difficult tasks are tying shoelaces into bows, and tying and retying a tie round ones neck.

Self Care

Self care addresses activities such as hygiene, cleaning teeth, washing hair, washing hands, cutting nails etc. These activities require a lot of the above skills outlined.

Play Therapy

Play is more often than not considered a leisure activity and therefore considered less important than other activities within life. Although play is considered this way games and play allow children to have fun and interact with a given environment that sometimes don’t require direct input from people, doing this a therapist can interact and relate more effectively within this environment. Within these environments, games help the therapists to diagnose asses and treat children. The games themselves act as tools to the therapist not only as an assessment tool but to help develop the child’s, behaviour, motor skills and visual perception while reducing anxiety and worry that children may have during assessments. The games used for this reason become very important, as they need to target the specific needs that therapists require.

Some current games therapists use.

• Kims Memory Game
• Secret Code (like Mastermind)
• Battleships
• Connect Four
• Jenga
• Tumbling Monkeys
• Kerplunk
• Spinning Tops

Children may have the following difficulties.

• Dyspraxia
• Specific Learning Difficulty
• Developmental Delay
• Cerebral Palsy
• Down's Syndrome
• Autism
• Asperger's Syndrome