Interactive System for Language and Communication Stimulation Directed to Young Children

Abstract

We present an Interactive System for Language and Communication Stimulation (ISLACS) directed to young children. The system is a technological educational application intended to stimulate learning abilities, developed as a native mobile application for devices with Android operating system. It is specially designed for children between 2 and 4 years of age, to stimulate language, contingency and attention, through cognitive tasks in the form of interactive mini-games. The activities teach the association between images with the corresponding infrequently used spoken words, and images of letters with the corresponding sounds (i.e. phonemes). The mini-games are based on multimedia resources, mainly videos of an educator, real objects and animals. The software evaluates progress by measuring interaction parameters such as correct answers and response time and has an algorithm to randomize the trials across children. The application is tested in 314 2-4 year-old children. Each child played a minimum of 8 sessions every other day, each one presenting 6 words and 4 letters, and testing for 3 words and 2 letters. Results showed that ISLACS is an attractive game for young children, which significantly succeeded to teach children the sounds of the letters and a repertory of nearly 48 infrequent words in Spanish, in a brief intervention.