A VR Serious Game to Increase Empathy towards Students with Phonological Dyslexia
This addresses the issue of stigma and misunderstanding faced by dyslexic students, particularly in educational settings, by increasing empathy among teachers and peers, though it is incremental as it applies existing VR technology to a specific domain.
The paper tackles the problem of low empathy and awareness towards students with phonological dyslexia by developing a VR serious game that simulates their reading difficulties, resulting in a tool that helps non-dyslexic people understand the need for support methodologies through experiential learning.
Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is estimated to affect about 5-10% of the population. In particular, phonological dyslexia causes problems in connecting the sounds of words with their written forms. This results in difficulties such as slow reading speed, inaccurate reading, and difficulty decoding unfamiliar words. Moreover, dyslexia can also be a challenging and frustrating experience for students as they may feel misunderstood or stigmatized by their peers or educators. For these reasons, the use of compensatory tools and strategies is of crucial importance for dyslexic students to have the same opportunities as non-dyslexic ones. However, generally, people underestimate the problem and are not aware of the importance of support methodologies. In the light of this, the main purpose of this paper is to propose a virtual reality (VR) serious game through which teachers, students and, in general, non-dyslexic people could understand which are some of the issues of student with dyslexia and the fundamental utility of offering support to them. In the game, players must create a potion by following a recipe written in an alphabet that is specifically designed to replicate the reading difficulties experienced by individuals with dyslexia. The task must be solved first without any help and then by receiving supporting tools and strategies with the idea that the player can put himself in the place of the dyslexic person and understand the real need for support methodologies.