Each Week OT expert, Sarit Tresser will be giving an in-depth insightful analysis into the various ways Health Games aid children with disabilities. Stay connected to receive first-hand input from a professional the field of child development
Clinical use of “Growing with Timocco” for developmental treatment, and children’s rehabilitation, shows that Timocco’s system encourages interaction between parent – child, therapist – child, or two children. Furthermore, this enables work on communication in a safe, inviting, and attractive environment for children with autism.
This is why Timocco developed a specific kit for children with communication disorders.
The kit was developed with Dr. Ofer Golan, head of the department of psychology, Bar-Ilan University.
Tim Duet’s kit emphasizes three majors functions:
1. Executives functions
2. Communication skills
3. Generalization of the skills that learn functioning
Since children on the autism spectrum mostly have difficulties in executing abilities such as to plan, control, solve problems and inhibition, Timocco created the evaluation games, which focus on those skills and enable advancement of the abilities of personal or social play in the virtual environment .
The games on Tim Duet are arranged in pairs. This way, beside one game that works on certain skills another will be found that strengthens similar skills in function and context that is closer to the child’s natural environment.
Likewise, each game has two features: a game with mediation and a game without mediation. In a game with mediation, the player gets hints and there’s automatic control of his performance. So, the computer provides feedback on the performance, warns when mistakes are done, and encourages the children to try again. When there’s no mediation, the computer doesn’t warn when mistakes have been made, and allows the children to make a mistake and figure it out by one’s self. This situation is suitable for children with high functioning, who can predict sequence of actions, control, recognize a mistake after it has been made, and fix it.
For example the “Train Track” game challenges two children to work in cooperation, and plan together to create the most efficient train track from the beginning to the end. The required skills for this game are: understanding the sequence of actions, planning the track, the ability to control actions that are made, and solving problems if needed. In addition, this game encourage taking turns, considering the partner’s wishes and actions, coordination, and cooperation between the players.
The complementary game to “Train Track” is “What’s Next?” This game works on identical skills (sequencing, planning, and control) but the reference is on a daily functioning context, such as bathing, organization in the morning, and sequence of actions before sleeping. In this game, the child (in a personal game or as a pair) needs to put together the right sequence of the daily actions that are presented. While playing with the computer mediation, the computer doesn’t allow the child to make a mistake, and turns attention to mistakes only when it’s happening. In contrast, a game without mediation allows the child to mistake and in the end of the sequence presents the child with a message that he had made a mistake and encourages him to find it and fix the sequence.
Leave a Reply