Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games
Date Submitted: Mar 15, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Mar 10, 2025 - May 5, 2025
Date Accepted: Aug 30, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Empowering Down Syndrome Children: Enhancing Emergency Preparedness through Serious Games
ABSTRACT
Background:
Children with Down Syndrome (DS) often face challenges in acquiring new skills, particularly those requiring high cognitive abilities. Numerous studies highlight the benefits of serious games for enhancing learning experiences.
Objective:
This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed serious games "Risk Resist," a serious game designed to enhance emergency preparedness skills among children with Down Syndrome (DS). Additionally, the study seeks to compare the learning gains and engagement levels achieved through this game-based approach against traditional human-based training methods.
Methods:
This study introduces "Risk Resist," a novel serious game to teach children with DS how to handle emergencies and crises. The game uses a Personalized Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) algorithm, dynamically tailoring game scenarios to the player’s skill level. The study involved 18 children aged 8 to 12 years, divided into an experimental group and a control group.
Results:
Significantly higher learning gains and engagement levels were observed in the "Risk Resist" group compared to traditional human-based training. The DDA algorithm ensured optimal challenge and engagement.
Conclusions:
"Risk Resist," the first game dedicated to crisis and emergency management for individuals with DS, effectively enhances emergency preparedness skills, making it a valuable educational tool for their development. Clinical Trial: Not/Applicable
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.