CoinBeam: A tangible interface to teach money concepts to intellectually challenged children

Abstract

While most of the educational systems for challenged learners have been inspired and adopted from developed regions, a little work has been done in implementing such systems for intellectually and developmentally challenged (IDC) children in developing regions. We conducted a study at a special school in North-eastern region of India to understand the needs and problems of these children and their caregivers. Some of the critical findings include the ineffectiveness of the existing teaching methods and the mental exhaustion of teachers while addressing the challenges faced by these children. In this paper, we present CoinBeam, a physical learning system based on tangible interactions which helps these children to learn the concepts of currency denomination splitting. The functioning of the CoinBeam is analogous to the working of a typical beam balance that is used to compare weights. The designed prototype was evaluated with four students in the presence of two teachers and one therapist. Our findings suggest that students are highly motivated in adapting to such learning systems that involve their active participation. While this work focuses on a specific use case, our results indicate some intriguing insights about the collaborative, associative and social aspects of these physical learning systems.