Noticia en español: https://goo.gl/JUCDzJ
The application, called Galexia, is available in Google Play for Android devices, and it was nominated for Best University Game by the Spanish Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
Researchers from the University of Granada have developed an ‘app’, an interactive game, which considerably improves reading fluency in kids with dyslexia and/or reading and writing difficulties
The application, called Galexia, is available in Google Play for Android devices, and it was nominated for Best University Game in the annual Spanish Videogame Contest called by the Spanish Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. The prizes were given in the XII International Videogame Congress (GAMELAB) which took place in Barcelona this summer.
Galexia is the result of a collaboration work between researchers and students from the University of Granada (UGR). The development of the ‘app’ counts with the guarantee of the UGR research team LEE (Lectura y Escritura en Español) and professors Francisca Serrano and Sylvia Defior from the Faculty of Psychology, for the psycho-educational part. As for the technical part, the application has been developed by professor Manuel García Olmedo, from the Higher Technical School of Informatics and Telecomunications Engineering (UGR-ETSIIT), and software development team Pambú! Developers, managed by José Francisco Bravo Sánchez. The graphic designer is Álvaro Maillo, and the music has been created by Roberto Acebrón and Sergio Bascuñana.
The application takes the form of an interactive game whose content is adapted to the user’s academic level, and it puts a special effort into the ludic (for younger kids) and motivational components. It’s attractive and easy to use, which makes it an interesting resource for treating and improving lecture and written expression in cases of dyslexia and reading and writng difficulties.
An alien companion
As the developers explain, the intervention program developed by Galexia «is organized so that the user befriends an alien companion who sets forth on an intergalactic journey from the Earth to his home planet, Leximundo. On board the spaceship, the users will travel around the galaxy through 24 game sessions in which they will carry out various activities and minigames that will improve learning and reading fluency in a fun and enjoyable context, overtaking all the obstacles they may find in their way: fighting enemy spaceships, resolving puzzles and riddles, exploring unknown planets, and more».
Improving reading fluency and comprehension in cases of reading and writing difficulties and dyslexia is an important issue to handle from the fields of pyschoeducation and language intervention. For that purpose, Galexia is an educational ‘app’ which has been developed based on evidence and researches about reading and writing problems.
It’s a personalized intervention program, customized for the user’s pace, sequentially structured (it starts with syllables, then words and, finally, whole texts). It uses fast reading and accelerated reading as a method of intervention for improving reading fluency in cases of dyslexia. Said intervention is complementary with phonological reinforcement activities, rules for grapheme-phoneme correspondence and spelling correspondence, in addition to comprehension activities.
Available for Primary school
Right now, the ‘app’ is available for kids between 2nd and 6th grade of Primary, and its use is already being widespread among dyslexia associations, parent-teachers associations, and schools from Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries such as Argentina or Ecuador, among others.
Galexia is being well accepted: it has been downloaded more than 5000 times right now, which puts it at the head of the world’s best psycho-educational ‘apps’ for improving reading and writing skills, and more specifically, dyslexia. In the future, Galexia will be adapted to Secondary students and adults.
The advantage of Galexia over other ‘apps’ is that it is based on a lot of empirical work. «It’s the result of a research work based on evidence and scientifically validated, drawn from the work of expert researchers in the field of reading and writing intervention and software development. It’s not just a game, but a monitoring, adaptation, user-improvement program, each session, dependent on the results», the developers say.
Moreover, it has a high success rate in countless schools, and it is endorsed by teachers and experts in dyslexia, speech therapy and education. The studies performed on people with difficulties show how the reading scores for children with difficulties get closer to those of children without them after having trained with Galexia.
As a collateral outcome (reported by teachers, families and professionals), the UGR researchers have found that Galexia encourages kids to have a greater interest in reading. Because of that, it could not only be useful in cases of reading and writing difficulties, but also as an incentive for all the people to read.
Link to one of Galexia‘s official trailers:
Link to the download page for Android devices (completely free):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PambuDev.galexia
Researchers Francisca Serrano Chica and Jośe Francisco Bravo, authors of Galexia
Contact:
Francisca Serrano Chica
Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación de la UGR
Telephone: (+34) 958 240 673
E-mail: fdserran@ugr.es
José Francisco Bravo
Informatics developer and Manager of Pambú! Developers
E-mail: gbajose@gmail.com
