Via: Social Clues Game
Social Clues is a puzzle-adventure Serious Game for the
iPad focused on person-to-person communication to help children with autism and
developmental disabilities improve social skills.
Social
Clues is the brainchild of husband and wife team
Karen Okrent M.S. CCC-SLP and Jeremy Bernstein, USC MBA Candidate 2014. Karen,
a Speech Language Pathologist, works daily with students with autism and
developmental disabilities teaching pragmatics and communication skills.
Jeremy, a marketing and creative-industry focused MBA candidate, previously
worked in animation and advertising in addition to directing a special-needs
social activities program.
Today the Social Clues multidisciplinary team is comprised of therapists, engineers, game designers, artists and musicians.Development is based out of the University of Southern California, but members contribute from across the country. Team members have professional work experience at renowned companies such as Disney Animation, Nickelodeon Studios and Microsoft.
The game presents an interactive narrative in which
players’ choices (actions and dialogue) advance the story and affect the
outcome. Players control Pete and Kate Mum as they search for their lost
toys while exploring 3D storybook levels based on real-world situations.
In order to find the lost toys, players need to navigate
conversations, and problem-solve everyday scenarios such as waiting in line,
dealing with flexibility, and joining a group. Pragmatic lessons and social
learning goals are purposefully chosen for each level and character type, and
are re-enforced through gameplay.
Maintaining
conversations
Recognizing
others’ emotions
Players’ actions are tracked utilizing behavioral
metrics that allow parents and therapists to monitor players’ skills progress
and behavioral change. Analytics show trend lines for both skills development
and decline, enabling parents to build customized levels tailored to their
child's needs.
Social
Clues provides
an engaging cast of characters, thought-provoking scenarios and fun mini-games
that teach and model behaviors for application in everyday lives.
Social Clues is being developed initially for the
Apple iPad, with future potential for additional touch screen devices and
platforms.
A
Curriculum Built On Evidence-Based Practices
Many interventions exist for autism, but only a
few have been proven effective through scientific research; these
interventions are called “evidence-based practices”. The learning objectives,
and key gameplay mechanics, in Social Clues have been
developed from the ground up using core principles of several “evidence-based
practice” interventions, including Applied
Behavioral Analysis (ABA), Errorless Learning, Social Narrative, and Discrete trial training (DTT).
For more information, please visit the National
Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders.