Background

Problem Overview

Today, approximately 2.3 million students are diagnosed with specific learning disabilities (SLD), representing about 35% of students who receive special education services [1]. One SLD is Visual Perceptual/Visual Motor Deficit which causes students to flip their letters, read slowly, be unable to copy from the board, and have poor hand eye coordination. Visual therapy has shown to help reduce the impact of this disability and improve learning abilities by helping children work on there visual processing skills.

So, what exactly are visual processing skills and how important are they? Visual processing is how our brain interprets the world around us. They develop when we are children but “when a child is behind in the development of visual processing skills learning can take longer, requiring more cognitive effort that slows down the learning process.” [2] Therefore, the goal of our device is to be disguised as a game, so that students have a fun way to partake in visual therapy and improve their hand eye coordination as well as their reading and processing speeds. 

Project Objectives

One of our project objectives was to take two games already out on the market and adapt them into visual therapy games using Arduino hardware and software. Two games that were an inspiration to the original design of this project were Whack-a-mole and Dance Dance Revolution. We took the speed and matching of item to place qualities of both games and the light up qualities of Dance Dance Revolution into our design while changing the format to fit the function of an Arduino Mega board.

The learning objectives of ENGR 103 are that students obtain research skills, teamwork skills, organizational skills, and learn how to plan ahead. Additionally, they are meant to teach the students more about the engineering design process and how to implement it when creating their own project. As a result of ENGR 103, this team has learned technical skills such as Arduino coding, CAD, 3D printing, and how to operate heavy machinery. We’ve learned significantly from our fellow team members as well as the professor and fellow leading our class as well as our peers.  With confidence, it can be said that this team did in fact accomplish all of these objectives as the Arduino code has been written, a 3D model has been made and printed, and multiple heavy machines were used in the making of our functional prototype.

The final deliverable will have two levels, one that is matching the color to the words on the screen and placing the correct colored block on the lit tile.  The second level is more complex; a color is printed on the screen and the tiles light up as different random colors.  The patient is meant to use the color printed on the screen and NOT the one the tile is lit as.  This is to emulate the Stroop effect.  

            References

[1] Learning Disabilities Association of America. (2018). New to LD. [online] Available at: https://ldaamerica.org/support/new-to-ld/ [Accessed 10 Apr. 2018].

[2] Visual Processing Skills and Game Ideas. New Horizons Visual Therapy Center, 5 Dec.      
            2016 www.newhorizonsvisiontherapy.com/visual-processing-skills-game-ideas/       
            [Accessed 14 May 2018].