Using Mathematics Game-Based Intervention on Children with Special Educational Needs: Preliminary Findings

This preliminary study examines whether a custom-built mathematics video game, "Space adventure: Defend the planet!", can improve arithmetic and basic geometry performance and sustain engagement among children with special educational needs, including deaf and hearing students with conditions such as dyscalculia, autism spectrum disorder, Asperger syndrome, and cognitive deficits. The game was developed under the GBL4deaf project and combines addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and turtle geometry tasks, with the intervention paired with personalised tutoring. The authors frame the work around two questions: whether students progressed in mathematics achievement, and whether gameplay was engaging.

The sample comprised ten students aged 9 to 16, drawn from public schools in Portugal, with three deaf and seven hearing students. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, sessions were delivered online via Zoom, typically two or three times weekly for 50 minutes over six to twelve weeks. Achievement was measured with a researcher-adapted 38-item test derived from a norm-referenced instrument, administered before and after the intervention, alongside an observational grid and a short emotional questionnaire based on the PANAS scale completed at three points in each session.

Results indicate mathematics gains ranging from 4% to 20%, with the largest improvements in a student with dyscalculia and a deaf student, while five of the ten participants showed no measurable improvement. Observations showed that students continued to rely on counting-based strategies during play, and students reported predominantly positive emotions, including satisfaction and involvement. The authors conclude that the game shows promise for engagement and for giving educators immediate diagnostic information, but they caution that the small, heterogeneous sample, varied conditions, and lack of a control group mean that stronger, more ecological evidence is needed before claiming effectiveness.