Observed Interaction in Games for Down Syndrome Children

This work proposes a method for evaluating the children´s behavioral interactions with a game, more specifically for evaluating playful applications for kids with cognitive disabilities. Our method introduces an evaluation criteria over children´s behavioral interaction and game design analysis, adapted from a list of breakdown indication types of the Detailed Video Analysis (DEVAN) that was originally designed for regular applications. We present a case study of the proposed evaluation method with a detailed analysis of the game called JECRIPE, originally developed for stimulating cognitive abilities of children with Down syndrome in preschool age. The proposed method adopts qualitative and quantitative criteria to review the initial developmental factors that have driven JECRIPE´s design versus the real behavior observed in a group of children playing the game. As results of this case study, we demonstrate the reliability of the evaluation method and the capacity of this method in discovering usability and fun problems in order to be considered and addressed in future game releases.