[games_access] games for autistic preschoolers

[Ian Hamilton]

Yep sorry that's what I get for trying to mail from my phone! As it's in the group now though, the games I was talking about are the Something Special ones, which I mailed about back when the first batch launched around a year ago.
If you're not in the UK you're probably not familiar with Something Special, if you are in the UK it's hard not to have come across Mr Tumble. SS is a TV show produced by CBeebies (the BBC's channel for preschool children) designed with the abilities and developmental goals of PMLD (profound and multiple learning disabilities) kids in mind, particularly those with communication difficulties, and uses Makaton throughout to encourage language development in non-verbal kids (http://www.makaton.org/aboutMakaton/), allowing them to meaningfully communicate with their families for the first time. 
Despite the niche focus is it also designed to be as appealing as possible to all children, a properly inclusive proposition, and it works - Justin/Mr Tumble are amongst the most recognised and loved children's characters in the UK. So that's what the games are based on too, but with some additional focus on motor impairment as it's such a common combination. 
Some of the young kids we worked with were really low functioning autistic, non verbal and not much comprehension at all of what was going on around them, at the same time as having almost no voluntary motor ability. So fairly challenging to make something that was just as enjoyable for them as for all other children, but successfully achieved through basing them on Dimitris Gramenos' universally accessible game design principles. 
UAGD principles aside the other key thing was thorough play-testing with profoundly disabled preschoolers, which was pretty challenging in itself.. standard practice in other industries to test with your actual target audience but pretty rare in the games industry, Valve being a notable exception (the reason their closed captioning system is good is because they actively recruit playtesters with hearing impairments). 
A bit more information about the research & testing side of it is available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XxFGXJxA9Q
The Aardman in the video are the same Aardman of Wallace and Grommit fame. When they're not making plasticine movies they also happen to be one of the leaders in switch accessible gaming.
Since launch they've had an additional mobile/tablet game released last month and another game now in production, all with some quite amazing results with the most profoundly disabled children, low functioning autism in particular. 
As well as working well for them (lots of really incredible stories about how the games have changed the lives of the kids and their families) they're also some of the most popular content that CBeebies have ever produced, with stats comparable to AAA console titles. 
Really concrete proof of how well Dimitris' principles work for reaching all levels of ability, so long as you can balance the configuration options well.. get the balance right between flexibility and complexity.
Ian

> From: games_access-request at igda.org
> Subject: games_access Digest, Vol 107, Issue 4
> To: games_access at igda.org
> Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2012 17:00:00 -0500
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>    1. Re: games_access Digest, Vol 107, Issue 2 (Javier Mairena)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2012 22:59:26 +0100
> From: Javier Mairena <javier.mairena at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [games_access] games_access Digest, Vol 107, Issue 2
> To: Ian Hamilton <i_h at hotmail.com>
> Cc: games_access at igda.org
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAO1r=jisGmjoNp7jFxhJeD4=EvYGdJH2spUNTzD_SwH4qe3kUA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Hi!
> I'm glad you like it :)
> For who don't know what is Ian talking about:
> http://t.co/4tWbVerZ
> 
> The article is based on our last experience in a game for Autism.
> The game is also in English:
> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/isequences/id506624913?mt=8
> And French: https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/isequences/id506624913?mt=8
> 
> And have a Lite versi?n.
> 
> We can chat via Skype if you want. Add my skype nick: "unmigo".
> 
 		 	   		  
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