Stepstone: An interactive floor application for hearing impaired children with a cochlear implant

Abstract

This paper describes a novel interactive floor application suited for hearing impaired children with a cochlear implant (CI). Existing linguistic learning materials for CI children are restricted to analogue books and CD ROM application in which bodily interaction is rather limited. The paper highlights the relation between language and body movement and proposes interactive floor technology as a foundation for CI children's linguistic learning. The Stepstone application described in this paper combines body movement and group collaboration as a mean for practicing and enhancing speech and language skills for CI children in a school environment. Two Stepstone games for CI children are presented: the Stepstone Ling Game helping the children to calibrate their cochlear implants, and the Stepstone Language Game which is a framework for language concept training. Copyright 2007 ACM.