Investigating Visual Perception Impairments through Serious Games and Eye Tracking to Anticipate Handwriting Difficulties

Piazzalunga, Chiara; Dui, Linda Greta; Termine, Cristiano; Bortolozzo, Marisa; Matteucci, Matteo; Ferrante, Simona

doi:10.3390/s23041765

Open AccessArticle

Investigating Visual Perception Impairments through Serious Games and Eye Tracking to Anticipate Handwriting Difficulties

by

Chiara Piazzalunga

^1,*,

Linda Greta Dui

¹

,

Cristiano Termine

²

,

Marisa Bortolozzo

²,

Matteo Matteucci

¹

and

Simona Ferrante

¹

Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy

²

Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sensors 2023, 23(4), 1765; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23041765

Submission received: 9 December 2022 / Revised: 23 January 2023 / Accepted: 2 February 2023 / Published: 4 February 2023

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors in Serious Games for Health)

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Abstract

Dysgraphia is a learning disability that causes handwritten production below expectations. Its diagnosis is delayed until the completion of handwriting development. To allow a preventive training program, abilities not directly related to handwriting should be evaluated, and one of them is visual perception. To investigate the role of visual perception in handwriting skills, we gamified standard clinical visual perception tests to be played while wearing an eye tracker at three difficulty levels. Then, we identified children at risk of dysgraphia through the means of a handwriting speed test. Five machine learning models were constructed to predict if the child was at risk, using the CatBoost algorithm with Nested Cross-Validation, with combinations of game performance, eye-tracking, and drawing data as predictors. A total of 53 children participated in the study. The machine learning models obtained good results, particularly with game performances as predictors (F1 score: 0.77 train, 0.71 test). SHAP explainer was used to identify the most impactful features. The game reached an excellent usability score (89.4 ± 9.6). These results are promising to suggest a new tool for dysgraphia early screening based on visual perception skills.

Keywords: gamification; dysgraphia; eye tracking

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MDPI and ACS Style

Piazzalunga, C.; Dui, L.G.; Termine, C.; Bortolozzo, M.; Matteucci, M.; Ferrante, S. Investigating Visual Perception Impairments through Serious Games and Eye Tracking to Anticipate Handwriting Difficulties. Sensors 2023, 23, 1765. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23041765

AMA Style

Piazzalunga C, Dui LG, Termine C, Bortolozzo M, Matteucci M, Ferrante S. Investigating Visual Perception Impairments through Serious Games and Eye Tracking to Anticipate Handwriting Difficulties. Sensors. 2023; 23(4):1765. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23041765

Chicago/Turabian Style

Piazzalunga, Chiara, Linda Greta Dui, Cristiano Termine, Marisa Bortolozzo, Matteo Matteucci, and Simona Ferrante. 2023. "Investigating Visual Perception Impairments through Serious Games and Eye Tracking to Anticipate Handwriting Difficulties" Sensors 23, no. 4: 1765. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23041765

APA Style

Piazzalunga, C., Dui, L. G., Termine, C., Bortolozzo, M., Matteucci, M., & Ferrante, S. (2023). Investigating Visual Perception Impairments through Serious Games and Eye Tracking to Anticipate Handwriting Difficulties. Sensors, 23(4), 1765. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23041765

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Investigating Visual Perception Impairments through Serious Games and Eye Tracking to Anticipate Handwriting Difficulties

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