I-DID carnival : a mobile game intervention for children with dyslexia, in perception-production based, visual-auditory approach

Abstract

Developmental dyslexia is a specific learning disability that significantly affects an individual’s ability to read and write, yet the intervention and treatment remain under-addressed in current research. Despite an estimated 9-12% prevalence rate among Hong Kong school-age children, individualized high-intensity training programmes are only available to severely impaired children, leaving the majority without adequate support. Given the rapid technological advancements and increasing popularity of smartphone entertainments, this thesis addresses this gap and complements the lack of accessible dyslexia intervention programmes by developing a mobile gamified intervention for all children regardless of social-economic status and severity.

I-DID Carnival was designed using a bottom-up approach and organised into four game stages based on the prevailing weaknesses and existing assessments of dyslexia in both cognitive and language domains. By incorporating both perceptual and productive abilities, a total of 18 games with two in-game assessments were developed from the domains of basic sensory-motor (visual, pitch, and rhythm) and memory skills, followed by the meta-linguistic abilities in the Chinese language (phonology, orthography, morphology, orthographic-phonologic-correspondence, and syntax). Through a self-administered format via personal smartphones or tablets, the game intervention was delivered to preschool to early school-age children (4-6 years old), which were divided into two groups: typically developed children (Control: N = 17, Intervention: N = 15) and children at risk of dyslexia (Control: N = 7, Intervention: N = 9).

The intervention’s performance and effectiveness were evaluated using game-specific analyses and a battery of pre-/post-tests, along with self-developed questionnaires measuring parental perceptions of the programme. Using in-game data to investigate the longitudinal performances of participants, the visual and auditory sensory skills were comparable between groups, but children at risk of dyslexia showed weaker performances in the language-specific abilities of phonological and orthographic knowledge.

Furthermore, the evaluation questionnaire outlined the external and internal motivation process in gameplay, which revealed that informative feedback is critical for learning, and visual attractiveness contributes to the enjoyment, confirmation and acceptance via game addiction. While parents expressed confirmation and satisfaction with the gamified approach, there is an emerging concern about the association with game addiction, which highlights the need for gamification tools to balance educational benefits with the risk of excessive gameplay.

Despite children at risk of dyslexia showing impairments in several cognitive and language domains in pre-test, the current findings showed that the intervention programme led to conflicting and inconsistent improvements compared with the control group, which is attributed to the confounding factors of parental role, dosage, and intervention format. Future research should consider applying laboratory settings and parent coaching techniques to validate the effectiveness of the gamified intervention.

By integrating edutainment approach into multi-dimensional domains, this thesis demonstrates the potential of a gamified intervention in creating an accessible and engaging programme with widespread scalability, showing promise in supporting literacy development and mitigating the challenges faced by children with dyslexia.