Developed by Maliverni and colleagues (2017), Pico’s Adventures is a free game for children aged 4-6. It can be used either at home or at the clinic. The aim of the game is to become friends with Pico, a friendly alien. Children do so by helping it with tasks, such as providing it with food or helping it repair its spaceship. Children learn social interaction skills, collaboration skills, and social initiation skills
The game is recommended to be played along a treatment plan. Recommended sessions include:
- First session: child plays in single-user mode
- Second session: child plays along but at some point requires help from someone else
- Third session: the child plays with an adult from the beginning of the session
- Fourth session: the child plays together with another unknown ASD child
The exploratory study found that the game caused children to exhibit behaviours such as: social smiling, visual contact, vocalization directed toward the other child, the adults, or the character, descriptive gestures, imitation, social expressions, pointing, sharing of emotions, initiation of social interaction, response to social interaction, and collaboration through regulatory and illustrative social interactions. This study had a strength score of 1 due to lack of rigour in the study design.
Download Pico’s Adventures (Requires computer, XBox Kinect)