Adam & Susy’s Face
This is an educational digital game designed to provide a learning opportunity for children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder. The game was designed for seven-year-olds and above to assist in the recognition and socially appropriate reactions to facial expressions. It aims to let children on the spectrum learn in a safe environment in which they can more easily relate while having fun — this project was designed in partnership with an individual working in the applied behavior analysis field.
There are two essential mechanisms in the game. The first one allows players to drag faces with 3 different emotions. These emotions are: “Happy”, “Angry” and “Sad”. For the character Adam to respond to the scenario, he will need to make one of three choices. After dragging the faces and putting them on the character, prompts for each face will pop up with a detailed explanation and its implication.
The second mechanism of this game is to let players type sentences to the character. The character will respond to what the player typed by changing his/her facial expression. This mechanism allows children on the ASD spectrum to learn how to react to a person given facial expressions social cues. It would also allow them to learn appropriate sentences that could be said to change facial expressions.
Platform: Scratch / Machine Learning for Kids
Course: MSTU6000 Advance Educational Game Design
Year: 2018 Spring