Dance Mat Fun: A Participatory Design of Exergames for Children with Disabilities

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Physiotherapy can lead to a long and tedious process where the progress of rehabilitation is usually not immediately visible. Exergames introduce a fun factor to the therapy while keeping rehabilitation as the primary goal, promoting patient engagement to foster adherence to therapy. This paper presents a participatory design of exergames for children with disabilities. We intended to explore the interaction with dance mats as a means of promoting rehabilitation and therapy adherence using a fun and low-cost off-the-shelf device for interaction. The games are designed to be adaptable, with different degrees of speed, difficulty and modality. Using the mat, the children can play standing up, seated or laying down. We worked with a rehabilitation clinic center for children to create a suite of exergames following a design thinking methodology, benefiting from the collaboration between developers, therapists, and patients. Therapists and children participated actively in the process design to help us create games suited to their needs. We present the participatory design process with focus on the user study that provides important insights on what works for certain groups of children with disabilities.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare
Subtitle of host publication16th EAI International Conference, PervasiveHealth 2022, Thessaloniki, Greece, December 12-14, 2022, Proceedings
EditorsAthanasios Tsanas, Andreas Triantafyllidis
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherSpringer
Pages513-527
Number of pages15
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-031-34586-9
ISBN (Print)978-3-031-34585-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
Event16th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, PH 2022 - Thessaloniki, Greece
Duration: 12 Dec 202214 Dec 2022

Publication series

NameLecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
PublisherSpringer
Volume488 LNICST
ISSN (Print)1867-8211
ISSN (Electronic)1867-822X

Conference

Conference16th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, PH 2022
Country/TerritoryGreece
CityThessaloniki
Period12/12/2214/12/22

Keywords

  • Children with special needs
  • Dance mat
  • Exergames
  • Low-cost controllers
  • Participatory design
  • Physiotherapy

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