Video games spark autism trial

Deakin University is conducting a five-week trial of Whiz Kid Games, a video game program designed for children living with moderate to severe autism.

By JACK LACY

Designed for autistic children aged six to 12, Whiz Kid Games aims to discover whether or not an interactive video game can help improve certain social behaviours such as following instructions and making eye contact.

Whiz Kid Games consists of several therapeutic games that aim to address core autistic deficits, specifically independent living skills, using animation and audio.

The trial participants are divided into an experimental group and a control group.

The experimental group members are exposed to the program for a period of five weeks and are required to play the games at home for at least 10 minutes a day.

Participants assigned to the control group do not receive the intervention.

Associate Professor Kylie Grey at the Monash Centre for Development Psychiatry and Psychology is the chief investigator of the trial. Prof Grey has worked at Monash University for nearly 20  years and specialises in developmental and intellectual disabilities.

“I have run a number of treatment trials for children and adolescents with autism. The interventions range from medication trials to social interventions and parent training interventions to address behaviour and emotional problems,” she says.

Prof Grey says her involvement with the trial began after she was approached by one of the developers of Whiz Kid Games, David Austin.

“I agreed to become involved as I am always keen to support promising treatments for children and families.”

 Whiz Kid Games was created five years ago in a collaborative effort between Swinburne University’s multimedia design program, the Swinburne Autism Bio-Research Initiative and the Bulleen Heights Specialist School.

About 80 Swinburne Multimedia Design students were responsible for developing the program’s content – with assistance from lecturers, programmers, autism experts, psychologists and speech therapists.

Deputy department chair of communication and digital media design at Swinburne James Marshall says it was a collaborative effort.

“We did something unique in the digital media design program. We got 80 students in our final year program to work together to create a learning program for autistic children,” he says.

Mr Marshall helped mentor the students who designed Whiz Kid Games and was responsible for the programming.

“We had four academic staff who worked on teaching students how to develop the programming, including myself as a project manager,” Mr Marshall says.

The idea for the program was inspired by research from Cambridge University.

In 2008, autism expert Simon Baron-Cohen – director of Cambridge University's Autism Research Centre and professor of developmental psychopathology – conducted a research study involving autistic children and their ability to recognise emotion.

The children were exposed to a series of animations called The Transporters, which required the matching of emotions with a remote.

The research found that following exposure to the DVD, the participants of the study were able to successfully recognise and comprehend emotions in real life situations.

Mr Marshall said the research showed that animations could have a big effect on the behaviour of autistic children.

“We thought we could do equally or perhaps better animation and would extend the idea into interactive computer games,” he said.

According to provisional psychologist and Deakin University associate lecturer Leigh Elliot, there has been public interest in the trial after an autistic child’s mother discovered the research online.

“She posted the information in a closed autism group on Facebook. After that we had a hundred people ring up asking to participate,” he says.

To date, 25 children have participated in trial of Whiz Kid Games. Deakin University expects 45 children overall will participate in the study.

Despite this initial high interest, some families involved in the trial have also experienced difficulty keeping their children interested and engaged with the program.

“Getting the children to go back to the program every day is just another challenge that those parents have,” Mr Elliot says.

“The program essentially adds an extra component to the already stressful lives of families who are living with the disability.”

Nevertheless, there is mostly positive anecdotal evidence from specialist school staff, parents and children who have participated in the trial.

Next month, Deakin researchers will begin analysing the data received from the trial and perform extensive follow-up testing.

If there is a positive outcome from the trial, more games will be developed by programmers rather than students.

 There are also plans to venture into the mobile technology market, with an application of Whiz Kid Games being developed.

The app will be compatible with iOS and Android devices.