Development of an arcade controller for children with intellectual disabilities to improve fine motor skills through video games

Abstract

The objective of this study is to implement a new therapy model, to improve the fine motor skills of children with intellectual disabilities. Using this proposed method, this study sought to discover whether two children with physical and intellectual disabilities can effectively improve their fine motor skills through the use of an arcade controller, specially designed to stimulate the movement of the fingers, hands, and arms of children, exercising them and improving their hand-eye coordination, finger control, digital grip, and body coordination. At the end, we present the results obtained by measuring the fine motor skills performed at the beginning and at the end of the study, applying the TEPSI's Coordination subtest which let us measure the fine motor skills of the kid, and a comparison of the improvement in fine motor skills with the results obtained with the TEPSI test applied to a child without any disability.