A general purpose game module for children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

The percentage of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been increasing in the world in general and in the Middle East in particular throughout the years. The growing numbers have not been directly linked to a particular cause but are likely to be a result of gene mutations and environmental factors affecting early brain development. Autism affects children in different ways, which makes each child with ASD behave uniquely; however, some behaviors are common in many of those children such as lacking emotional and social skills. This paper presents a digital gaming module, which has been designed to help in the therapeutic process of children with ASD. The module involves displaying images on a touch screen through Arduino MEGA platform with Wi-Fi module connected to a graphical user interface to design different types of activities. The module can display various types of images as needed in the activity. The displayed images involve basic facial expressions, geometric and other objects, and text in such a way that the children could select the images corresponding to questions asked by the care-giver.