GAMES AND MORE GAMES! HelpKidzLearn, Inclusive Eye Gaze Learning Curve Games, Look to Learn and Look to Read are the games that I use when teaching eye gaze to my students. As the implementer, I like to introduce students to age appropriate games. However, I do take into consideration that this might be the first time ever that an eye gaze user is able to play games independently. The stu- dents might not care that the games they are playing are not necessarily age appropriate. I also understand that kids have dif- ferent interests at all different age levels. HelpKidzLearn is an accessible website for kids that use dif- ferent access methods (e.g. touch, eye gaze, switches, etc.) and was created by Inclusive Technology Ltd. They are currently of- fering a 14-day free trial. HelpKidzLearn has different monthly and yearly licensing options on their website: helpkidzlearn.com They do a nice job of separating games for kids in Pre-K through about 1st grade under “Early Years.” Under “Games” they have games that vary by age appropriateness, from about kindergar- ten-fifth/sixth grades. “Stories” has a lot of stories and songs that target counting from 1 to 5. “Creative” has activities that would gauge the interest of kids of all ages. There are different activi- ties that allow kids to create their own masterpieces (e.g. paint, holiday cards, sandcastle, etc.). HelpKidzLearn releases holiday themed games seasonally! The Inclusive Eye Gaze Learning Curve games are organized by targeted skills necessary for using eye gaze. They also do a nice job of breaking down the skill of eye gaze into a task analy- sis. If you play the games in this progression (it goes from easy to hard) and if you master the skills in progression, then you should be able to do the higher level skills: Tracking, Fixating, Locating, Take Turns, Explore, Choose Anything, Preferred Choices, Linear Choices and Multiple Choices. These games also take data while the user is playing the games. The cost for the Learning Curve game varies by how many licenses you want to purchase. For a single user, the cost is $799. Look to Learn sequences their games in a task analysis similar to the Inclusive Eye Gaze Learning Curve games. The categories of games progress from “Sensory,”“Explore,”“Target,”“Choose,” to “Control.” Look to Learn has an assessment tool called heat map. The heat map shows the progression of where the eye gaze user looked on the screen. This can be a tool to measure progress. Look to Learn costs $570 or $684 with tax. Look to Read is for beginning readers to learn how to recog- nize sounds and letters, as well as track words on a page. This may be the first time that the eye gaze user is able to interact and access a book or literary material independently. The cost of Look to Read is $285. BEYOND GAMES You are probably wondering, “How do I know when my stu- dent is ready to move on from only playing games?”This can oc- cur when your student is making one to zero mistakes, is access-
ing targets all over the screen while playing games, and wants to continue playing games. Additionally, you may also notice an increase in the eye gaze user’s intrinsic motivation. You may be using the built-in assessment features in the games to measure your student’s progress. When you are ready to make the shift from using eye gaze to play games to applying eye gaze to natural opportunities, find out what the student’s interests are, or talk to same aged peers and find out what applications or websites they are interested in. It is also beneficial to reach out to the eye gaze user’s family and get their input! Some ideas are: YouTube Kids, logging on and watching Netflix and listening to music or podcasts on Pan- dora, Spotify, or any other streaming platform. Make sure to use a forward chaining approach when teaching eye gaze users to apply skills learned from playing games to the natural oppor- tunities. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS Take the features described in this presentation and match them to your student(s)! There is no right or wrong direction, you may try one software and realize it is not the right fit and go with another. You may go with one and realize as they become more proficient, the other option has features for the skills they need to access at that point in time. Consider the whole child in this process! Most importantly, celebrate every success! REFERENCE What are sticky tasks? Tobii Dynavox. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.tobiidynavox.com/support-training/faq-from- salesforce/what-are-sticky-tasks/
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