Learning games for children with intellectual challenges

This paper discuss the design of the current educational tutorials and games which are developed for children with intellectual challenges who are resident in the Shafallah center for children with special needs in Doha, Qatar. These edutainment games teach the children using multimedia elements to improve their memorization skills and proactivity. Five games have been so far developed and being evaluated. These games teach the children about counting, healthy food, home objects, fruits & vegetables. The designed games characters are selected from the local environment as the children are familiar with them. Whenever the game is completed successfully, the child will get a virtual gift of different values based on the time he/she spent on the game and the number of right selections to reach a solution. This gift will be added to the child´s virtual space and can be substituted by a higher value gift whenever the child improves his/her performance and completes the game in a shorter time. This concept challenges the children to try to get always the best gift while learning in a funny and enjoyable way.