Grasping the Grammar with Moovy: a Tangible User Interface to Train Linguistic Skills in Children

Abstract

Linguistic skills are the building blocks of one of the most resourceful abilities of human beings: communication. Compromised linguistic skills significantly reduce the understanding or exchanging of meaningful messages and information. Children with difficulties in this area are often enrolled in extensive speech therapy programs and, nowadays, such issues affect also bilingual children with a migrant background, impacting their quality of life. Our research explores a Tangible User Interface developed on a new paradigm we postulated called "Embodied Argument Movement". In this paper, we present Moovy, an engaging table-top game for rehabilitating challenging morphosyntactic constructs and improving language skills. We performed two pilot studies with 13 children; one to test the User Experience and the other to assess Moovy's efficacy and the paradigm soundness. Preliminary results suggest that Moovy could make a difference in speech-therapies programs, fostering children to continue their therapy willingly and successfully.