Jogo sério para apoio de estímulos: um estudo de caso para pessoas com deficiência intelectual

Abstract

The pursuit of inclusive and high-quality education, as proposed by the sustainable development goal, in specific quality education, reinforces the need to develop accessible technological tools that support the learning process of individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. These individuals often face challenges in developing essential cognitive skills such as pattern recognition, logical reasoning, and working memory. Although serious games have proven to be an effective approach to combining playfulness and learning, there remains a significant gap in the literature regarding their application specifically for people with intellectual disabilities. In this context, this work presents the development of the serious game Conecta!, a web-based application designed around the stimulus pairing mechanic, a procedure widely used in Applied Behavior Analysis for teaching new associations between visual, auditory, and textual stimuli. The game was structured based on a Game Design Document and includes accessibility features and adjustable difficulty levels to accommodate different cognitive and sensory needs. An experimental evaluation was conducted with twenty-two participants with mild and moderate intellectual disability, all members of an institution supported by the “Educational Software Development” outreach project. The results showed high engagement and a positive learning curve, with a reduction in average task completion time and improvement in performance. These findings indicate that Conecta! effectively supports the development of pattern recognition skills and reinforces the using of serious games as inclusive pedagogical tools.