CodaRoutine: A Serious Game for Introducing Sequential Programming Concepts to Children with Autism

Problem solving, analyzing the validity of a solution and spotting patterns in data are all substantial skills needed in the workplace nowadays not only in the programming field. Solving and generating multiple solutions to a problem is quite challenging for children with autism spectrum disorders. As a solution, the work in this paper presents the design, implementation and the evaluation of a serious game that focuses on the sequential programming concepts. The presented game aims to teach problem solving skills to children with autism. A user-study was conducted to evaluate the game with children who have autism. According to the evaluation carried out in this research, the game was proven to be engaging, which indicates that the serious game is promising for teaching sequential programming concepts to children with autism.