ConnSENSEReview Puddingstone Place

ConnSENSE Review: Puddingstone Place

Product reviewed: Puddingstone Place
Center for Communication Disorders
Children's Hospital Boston
Price: $129.00
http://www.childrenshospital.org/clinicalservices/Site1850/mainpageS1850P21sublevel22.html

Puddingstone Place is an interactive virtual environment complete with sound, graphics, and animation. The software was created and Champ developed at the Center for Communication Disorders (CCD), Children's Hospital Boston. The motivation behind developing the program was to fill a need recognized as unmet by the CCD team in the field of educational software.

The program opens with a scene of the front of a house with a welcoming front porch. It is here where we meet our guide Champ, a bright blue character ready to take us on a tour of the inside of the house. A double click on the mouse transports you inside of the house where Champ appears once to describe the room as it is entered; in this case, the front hall. Once inside you can go from room to room on the first floor and tour the kitchen, the office, and the living room. From the kitchen it is also possible to enter the garage, by double clicking the door.

The first time you enter each room, Champ appears to identify the location and to give you any additional instructions that may be pertinent. Inside each room there is an assortment of commonly found objects; the color graphics are crisp and clear for an animated environment. The objects fall into one of two categories, Interactive and Non-interactive. When the cursor passes over the interactive objects, they are outlined in a yellow halo and a yellow hand pointer appears. Double clicking the yellow hand causes the text label to appear while the label is spoken aloud; following the visual and verbal identification, the object becomes animated. For example double clicking on the bathroom shower turns it on, making the water rain down accompanied by the sound of the shower as well; in the kitchen the blender can be turned on and so can the radio that plays a little tune. For some of the animated objects, it was necessary to double click again to stop the action, while others played out their activity and then stopped automatically. In some rooms it was also possible to have a number of animations playing simultaneously.

The house has three rooms on the first floor plus the garage; the second floor has a bedroom, closet, bathroom and playroom. In the playroom there are several interactive activities to choose from; the orchestra game where musical instruments come alive with a double click and play “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” (the activity shuts itself down when the song is done); a dress up game where you dress Champ in a number of different outfits, this requires the ability to click and drag the appropriate pieces of clothing, lining them up on his body; a third game has you place bubble gum on one of four places on Champ. After placing the gum, Champ sings a silly song and then asks you to identify a place for him to throw it in the room, explaining options using positional terms (in, on, under, etc.).

You can adjust the level of prompts that the user receives in labeling the items in the rooms through the settings adjustments. For example, you can have the full text displayed for the label, partial text displayed for the label, or no text displayed at all. The choices are available with the auditory cue as well. One of the most fun features with the program is the ability to customize the pictures that hang throughout the house on the walls by inserting your own photographs into them. What child wouldn't be thrilled to see his or her picture hanging on the wall?

The program is recommended for children with language delays, including children with autism. While it's clear that many young children (2-4) would be drawn to the animations in the program, some interactions may prove overly stimulating for children with autism. For example, if you place the cursor at the edge of the screen, the rooms begin to revolve on the screen quite rapidly, which could serve as a form of visual stimulation for a child on the spectrum. Similarly, activating some of the interactive objects that provide auditory feedback like the shower and the tea kettle could also be a source of repetitive auditory stimulation; couple the auditory with the visual simultaneously and you could have quite a stimulating experience. Children who are sensory seekers need to be closely supervised to ensure that it is being used for educational benefit. The program is also recommended for adults who may be experiencing aphasia or other word retrieval difficulties; it is possible to turn off "Champ" and adjust the settings for verbal and visual prompts.

The program can also serve as a platform for simple mouse skill development. In order to participate you need to be able to differentiate between single and double click. While the yellow hand requires a double click (animated) and a blue hand requires a single click (not animated), a double click will also activate the blue hand choices. A single click on a yellow hand will activate the label activity only, but will not turn on the animation. It would be possible to use Don Johnston Switch Interface Pro and place a yellow switch in the double click connection and a blue switch in the single click connection and have a child access the program at that level as well. There is also a click and drag activity and an activity that requires placement of the cursor on a circled area of Champ's body, presenting further opportunity to develop access skills.