In this post, I will discuss a very interesting application for the use of video games in helping students with special needs. In his paper, Wayne Holmes (2011) followed a group of young children between 8.5 and 10.5 years of age with severe literacy difficulties, all with a reading age more than two years below their chronological age. He studied the effect of a literacy program, based on a video game called Catch Up Literacy, to support their literacy development at home.
The author found that students really liked the gaming approach, the graphics and animations, the feedback and the challenges of beating their best time. Parents appreciated the benefit of being able to support their child's learning as well as the quality time spent with their child. However, most of the parents did not use the guide and complained about the lack of instruction and the the loss of interest from the children after the novelty had worn off - mainly because the children played the game randomly instead of following the order recommended in the user guide or because they repeated the games that they found easy and then lost interest.
The latter observations can be explained in light of the findings presented in my first 2 posts (“A good game” and “Go with the flow”). To keep the player motivated, the task has to be challenging but achievable. If the task is beneath their capability, the player becomes bored but if it is beyond their capability, the player fails and gives up. This points out the importance of good game design in order to maintain students' engagement and motivation.
These findings open new horizons for the potential of video games in supporting students who need individual remedial learning by creating a structure at home that both parents and children find enjoyable.
References:
Holmes, W. (2011) Using game-based learning to support struggling readers at home. Learning, Media and Technology. Vol. 36, No.1, pp5-19.
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