New EASe Games for Children with Autism
Thursday, July 17, 2008
By: Carin Yavorcik

Video game designed to help with sensory integration

Vision Audio Inc. has announced the release of EASe Off-Road, the first video game designed to help train children with autism to cope with sensory integration challenges.

Since 1995, Vision Audio’s line of EASe (Electronic Auditory Stimulation effect) encoded music CDs have assisted children, including those with autism, to learn to cope with auditory hypersensitivity as well as central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), also a neurological condition.

The first in the EASe Games video game series, EASe Off-Road, further expands on the sound-based therapy. The games employ a virtual vestibular game environment to train a child to develop the integrated systems responsible for organizing balance and body awareness the visual/vestibular/cochlear triad.

EASe Off-Road includes two different driving worlds, two automobile speeds and multiple colors of dune buggies. The game experience is one of bumping and jumping over hills, sometimes crashing into trees and sometimes flying off cliffs and rolling over, end over end. Tracking moving targets challenges a child’s smooth pursuit eye movement, while flying debris challenges saccadic eye movements and encourages the child to concentrate on visual orientation and balance.

Specially encoded music employed in the EASe Off-Road video game provides auditory stimulation during play to train a child to habituate to noise, while the exciting, virtual vestibular game play of off-road auto racing helps them with balance and proprioceptive awareness. The game stimulates smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movement by challenging the child to pursue and tag targets scattered across a wild landscape. Multiple levels of difficulty keep the games interesting for the children. For more information, visit http://www.easecd.com/.