AKtiveWorld: A Gamified Mobile Application for Social Skills Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

This study presents AKtiveWorld, an offline gamified mobile application designed to support social skills development among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 6 to 12. The system integrates a rule-based dialogue mechanism, a threshold-based reinforcement algorithm, and a personalized progress tracking feature to provide a structured and adaptive learning environment. Through virtual character interactions and scenario-based dialogues, the application simulates real-life social situations that allow users to practice appropriate social responses in a safe and controlled setting. The study evaluated three core system components. First, the rule-based dialogue system achieved a functional suitability score of 3.6, indicating effective dialogue flow, scoring accuracy, and task completion. Second, the threshold-based reinforcement mechanism utilized the Independent Positive Count (IPC) to assess user performance, where a score of 11 out of 15 (73.33%) met the required 70% passing threshold, confirming the system’s capability to identify weaker social skills and reinforce them through repeated dialogue exposure. Third, the personalized progress tracking feature demonstrated its effectiveness in monitoring and recording user responses, contributing to continuous skill improvement and obtaining a usability mean score of 3.8. In addition, the system achieved a performance efficiency mean score of 4.8, reflecting responsive interaction, smooth scene transitions, and stable offline operation. The findings indicate that AKtiveWorld is a functional, usable, and effective platform for supporting adaptive social skills learning among children with ASD.