Augmented Reality Based Learning Environment for Children with Special Needs

Technology interference has become noticeable in all aspects of life. One of the most popular technologies is Augmented Reality (AR) used in all fields to facilitate and enhance those fields. The education filed is one of the areas in which augmented reality has been used extensively during the last years. Augmented reality has contributed to improving traditional educational methods through the integration of digital information with the user's environment in real-time. Therefore, augmented reality technology can be utilized to teach children with special needs due to its advantages in enriching the learning methodology. This paper introduces the design, development and evaluation of an efficient and low-cost AR-based educational environment for children with special needs. This environment utilizes augmented reality and educational cards to teach children the word from the card, its 3D model and its pronunciation. The proposed educational environment is developed as a mobile-based augmented reality (AR) application to be more attractive for children. The results showed that children enjoy sessions and interact with the application, which improves learning outcomes. Moreover, the user experience questionnaire shows a high level of satisfaction among parents and specialists.