Using a kinect-based game to teach oral hygiene in four elementary students with intellectual disabilities

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) may have difficulties in performing daily living tasks. Among other daily living tasks, independent oral hygiene is an essential life skill for people with ID.

Four children with intellectual disabilities (two males and two females, ages 7-11) participated in the experiment. We employed the Kinect^TM V2 sensor to gamify oral hygiene skill training. Specifically, a non-concurrent multiple baseline design was adopted to demonstrate the relation between game-based intervention and independent oral hygiene skills.

All students learned how to brush their teeth independently and maintained the skill 4 weeks later with the introduction of the game-based training. Social validity results showed the teachers and parents considered the video game was useful.

The proposed Kinect-based video game might be used for effective training of elementary students with ID to improve oral hygiene independently.