Dino Island

Dino Island training program for attention and executive function

Our highest priority is to improve the well-being and success of children with special needs and their families. We proceed with care and compassion and strive to create a positive impact for all of those that are impacted by neurodevelopmental concerns or are in their circle of care.

The Dino Island intervention program consists of five ‘serious games,’ meaning that they are designed for a therapeutic purpose (i.e., improving attention and EF), but incorporate the look and feel of a video game to help interest and motivate children. Each of the games focus on various aspects of attention and EF, progressively becoming more difficult as children succeed. As children begin to struggle with more difficult task/game demands, the program automatically adjusts to make sure that children do not become overly discouraged. 

Interventionists (i.e. parents, educational assistants, etc.) receive online training that provides a foundational understanding of cognitive intervention, including specific lessons on how to effectively teach/scaffold problem-solving strategies so that children will eventually master the concepts and be able to use them independently in their daily lives. 

In the video below, which was taken from a recent spotlight of Dino Island at the Kids Brain Health Network 2020 Conference, Dr. Sarah Macoun and some of her industry partners and trainees provide an overview of the intervention and some of the ways it has made an impact in the community…

[ Video clip: Day3_1115_IndustryAcademia.mp4 ]

IS DINO ISLAND A VIDEO GAME? 

Dino Island is a ‘serious game’. Serious games look like video games, but they are in fact different as they are designed for a designed for a therapeutic cause as opposed to entirely entertainment purposes. Integration of treatment into serious games permits us to deliver interventions in a way that is engaging, effective, and accessible.

Serious games are an ideal format for process specific interventions for children because interventions that may typically feel ‘boring’ or ‘repetitive’ can be programmed into a fun and interesting activity. In fact, research comparing cognitive training that is delivered in a serious game format versus non-game format indicated that children trained on the game version showed greater motivation as reflected by time spent training, better training performance, and better outcomes.

Serious games can also be programmed to automatically adjust the level of difficulty depending on the user’s performance and to deliver intervention in a hierarchical (easy to more difficult) manner. Not only is this critical for intervention effectiveness, but also permits these types of interventions to be delivered more remotely and by non-experts (the expertise is programmed into the game!). 

However, it is important to note that outcomes are maximized when serious games are combined with in-person interventionist support.  As a result, the Dino Island program combines both table-based gaming with support by an adult in the child’s circle of care (parent, support worker, educational assistant, teacher, etc.).