Unbenannt Information for parents, teachers and therapists Target groups children from 4 years up people with special visual perception and/or attention deficit problems Training objective To test and train visual discrimination, especially analytical (foveal) and holistic (peripheral) object and face perception. A player’s name should always be entered as one word. If there are several players with the same name or initials decide on naming conventions for eliminating confusion when comparing scores. Game rules All games are played according to the same rules which makes it easier for young kids. The player has to find the object shown at the bottom of the screen (here the yellow square) in the group of objects at the top and click it. The vertical bar on the right shows the progress. For completing a game, 11 correct answers must be given (plus an additional correct answer for each error). The arrow button on the left allows ending a game without recording scores. The number on the lower right hand side indicates the game number. Functions of the main menu buttons: Go to the preliminary practice (useful when the first games seem too difficult. Game numbers are 31 to 40.) Go to the mouse training (for computer illiterates). Show all game scores: name, game number, number of errors (F), time in seconds (s), date and time. Click again to hide scores. Exit the program. Hide the comparison values of game scores. Compare new scores with previous scores of the same or another player (asks for entering the name of the player). Show mean (= average) scores of players aged 11 to 69. Show extreme (= best) scores of players aged 11 to 69. Starting the program: If the autorun function does not work select start - execute and enter D:AD_JUN.EXE (where D is the letter of your CD-ROM drive) Volume: If your settings are set to “task bar always in the foreground”, you can control the volume after clicking on the loudspeaker icon. Game sounds: ok, sorry, melodies (played at the completion of a game) How to use this program with kids from 4 to 9 1. Supervise the name entry. Correct wrong entries by clicking the NAME button. If necessary enter yourself the name of the player at each program start. 2. Observe the player while doing the first games. Assist by asking questions or directing the attention to details. If you see that the first games are too difficult have the player do the mouse training and/or the preliminary practice games. Mouse training: The cursor appears as a ball. The task requires moving the ball on the gray street to another child without touching the lawn. While the ball is on the street you hear some music. When it touches the lawn the music stops. When it reaches another child the melody changes. The idea of this simple game is to experience the relationship between mouse and cursor movement without looking at the mouse. Tell the player where the ball should go. „ Move the ball to the boy with the red jacket“. 3. General rule for all games: Stop the game session when you feel the player is getting tired - either by exiting the program or by letting another player start. 5 to 15 minutes is normally the limit for one round of games. 4. Do not use comparative scores (buttons M or E) with this age group. 5. Before the next round of games of the same player (after a program start) click button C and enter again the player‘s name. Like this you can immediately see the games the player has completed including the corresponding game scores. 6. Once you are sure that games 31 to 40 of the preliminary practice games are easily completed, start with game 1 from the main menu. 7. Games 1 to 30 should be played approximately in the sequence of their numbers since they are arranged according to their difficulty. As difficulty depends also on the strategy used have the player try the next game if a game seems too difficult. If several games in a row turn out to be too difficult have the player concentrate on improving the scores of the previous games. 8. Try to find out the player’s strategies of perception by observation and by simply asking questions like „what are you looking for?“. Assist by directing the attention to relevant details without pointing at them. 9. If you notice that the player starts to click only by „trial and error“, restart and exit the program and click button s (seconds) on the first screen to change itself to F (faults). Up to the next program start the number of errors is indicated on the scoreboards (instead of the time in seconds). However the time is still recorded in the score file c:AD_JUN.TXT . 10. We recommend not to have children of this age group play without supervision for a period longer than about 5 minutes. It is very important to avoid frustrations. How to use these games with teenagers and adults 1. Mouse training and preliminary practice games are normally not used. 2. Before letting students play on their own check if their name entry is correct and make it clear that they have to report to you before exiting the program session. This makes it easier for you to check their work. 3. Brief them on their task definition and time limit (maximum is 15 to 20 minutes). Task definition examples: - Complete as many games as possible - Complete as many games as possible with no errors - Do the games that you didn‘t complete in the previous session(s) - Complete as many games as possible with a time better than average (maximum of 4 trials per game) - Complete as many games as possible trying to approach the shortest time (E) - Note your strategy whenever you beat the average value - Play against another player‘s scores - Concentrate on the games which are the most difficult ones to you 4. Check the scores before exiting the session. The yellow scores of the actual game session are available only until a new player’s name is entered with the NAME button. After clicking the magnifier button or restarting the program the last scores of a player are updated and can be shown by clicking the C button. If two players compete have them click the magnifier button twice and then button C before taking their turn. 5. For an analysis of scores open c:AD_JUN.TXT as WORD file and save it under a new name as .doc file. Change the file into a table using spaces as delimiters. Then you can sort the table by columns to make separate files for each player showing the progress in time for each game number. How to use these games in therapy 1. For teenagers and adults with special needs proceed as described under ages 4 to 9. Only when you are sure that your clients can cope, proceed by following the instructions for teenagers and adults. 2. If you think that your clients are highly gifted (if the first scores are already near the best scores), let them jump games until they find their appropriate degree of difficulty. 3. Clients with any mother tongue and even with severe handicaps are able to play these games if properly instructed and supervised, as no language elements are used in these games. 4. Free comments on special problems are available from the author by email if you send a description of the problem and details of the client (together with the attached score file) to Dr. Hans-Werner Hunziker hunziker@learning-systems.ch You will find the latest information on this and other perception training programs at: www.learning-systems.ch Other CD-ROM titles by the same author: Eagle-Eye (from 7 years) visual perception training with letter recognition Super Owl (from 7 years) auditory perception training with sounds and syllables Kalkmonster (from 7 years) perception of numbers and quantities