The Integration of the Computer-mediated Ludic Experience in Multisensory Environments

Multisensory stimulation environments (MSE) have grown in popularity particularly among organizations dedicated to children with developmental disabilities. These artificial places are the stage for a custom-made intervention that relies on technological artifacts to induce a general feeling of relaxation and well-being, from which leisure, occupational or therapeutic objectives are pursued. Children with intellectual disability are a preferential group of clients in MSE for reasons related to the intervention on their personal development, taking into account the imperative of social inclusion and integration. The computer-mediated ludic experience, provided by a computer game or a simulation, concentrates a stimulation potential that is similar to other traditional objects in MSE. In addition, the computer-mediated ludic experience can be designed and configured to work as a mediator to the objectives of the intervention being carried out. The first objective of this work is to clarify which specific areas of the intervention based on the MSE for children with intellectual disability could benefit from the computermediated ludic experience. The challenge of contextual diversity is also meaningful for a second concern in this work, related to the elicitation of preferential characteristics of the computer game to be used in MSE, as a contribution to the definition of a set of design guidelines.