EDA PLAY ELIS

A SURPRISE BEHIND THE DOOR,

A SIMPLE TOUCH ON A SCREEN

For the training of vision and fine motor skills; developed for children with multiple and visual disorders. Tailor-made for children with CVI - central visual impairment.

A simple, but highly motivating game. Children with visual and multiple disorders can play the game, understand the tasks and enjoy the app.

How to get the app

For iPADs: The EDA PLAY ELIS app is available for iPad devices on the App Store for USD 6.99.

For ANDROID TABLETS: The EDA PLAY ELIS app is available for USD 6.99 on Google Play here. We recommend using the app on tablets with a 7-inch display or larger. For children with visual and multiple disabilities, we recommend using the app on larger tablets as these children need large enough images and play area.

The EDA PLAY ELIS app is available on the App Store and the Google Play

Features you will love
Explore the EDA PLAY ELIS app

Tailor-made for children with CVI

By simply touching the screen, the children will find out what’s hiding behind the door in the EDA PLAY ELIS app. An interesting sound when opening the door brings a moment of surprise which in combination with animation on the screen, captivates the visual attention.

Each series of tasks begins with an invitation to open a door behind which something interesting is taking place. The repeated moment of surprise drives the motivation to follow the plot. Through repetition, children with CVI learn to recognize shown activities they know from daily life, such as doing the laundry or baking a cake. These are the very activities we see in the game.

Training of visual skills

All images are rendered against a black background, in bold colours and understandable shapes. Pairs and/or groups of images also appear on the screen, yet individual illustrations are placed far enough apart for the child to be able to perceive both individual pictures and the entire scene.

Children focus on the specific picture to which the vocal guide direct them. The child follows the change in bold colours or animation which has been triggered by touching the screen.

A child with CVI needs to see the picture repeatedly to understand what it means.

Training of fine motor skills

A pleasant child’s voice encourages the opening of the door – by simply touching the screen, the child opens the door. Then the child finds out what appears on the screen. Through simple touches of the screen, the task can be achieved and an interesting animation which appears can be observed on the screen. Even children with motor coordination difficulties can be successful in accomplishing the tasks.

Children discover that they can affect the specific plot and cause a change through their own agency.

Find out what's hiding behind the door

We help children with CVI find their whereabouts in the world

Children with CVI have difficulties finding their bearings in their surroundings; it is challenging for them to recognize people and objects, to distinguish them and to understand what or who they’re seeing. Working with their vision makes great demands on children with CVI and they would often prefer to avoid doing this. They prefer perceiving through their other senses, especially hearing and the sense of touch. That is why we included interfaces between the short scenes of the application – an animation of opening doors accompanied by sound effects. Other elements to support focused attention are the sound effects and verbal instructions given in a pleasant, encouraging child’s voice.

A picture of door in the EDA PLAY ELIS app

Markéta Skalická

Low vision specialist, methodologist for the development of visual perception, early intervention specialist

Through repetition, children with CVI learn to understand what they see

“Children with CVI are motivated by tasks in the EDA PLAY ELIS app to develop an interest in looking at the screen. It is difficult to catch the attention of these children; bold colours and simple shapes, along with animation and help us. We carefully introduce sounds which support the recognition of what is being looked at.

Children know from their home life about baking a cake or doing the laundry. In the game, they can try baking a cake or putting the laundry in the washing machine. These situations might appear easy, yet children with CVI have a problem connecting a drawn picture with a real-life situation – yet for a satisfactory life they need to understand such connections. We repeat the tasks and use distinctive symbols and shapes in the pictures.

Through repetition in play, the child learns how to develop a visual notion of specific situations and how to understand them and figure out that it is the same thing or event.”

Alice Pexiederová

Early intervention specialist

Some tips on using the EDA PLAY ELIS app in real life

“It is very important for the children to grasp the meaning when looking at a 2D depiction of reality, thus developing their understanding of pictures. It is therefore important to work with real-life situations. We can take the app with us to the washing machine when we’re doing the laundry and compare the real washing machine and coloured laundry items with its illustration. Or we can take a photo of the cake at a birthday party and then examine what the cake looks like, what is identical and what is different – and what makes the cake distinctive. When blending the smoothie in the game, we can use our own blender and fruit and talk about what goes into the smoothie and what we feel like drinking. There are more situations based on real-life in the app. It would be a waste not to use them; it is great to come back to them.”

Lucie Magerová

Early intervention specialist

What is important for the recognition of who is who?

“Together with Ellie, a girl in the app, we discover situations and people around us. One by one, we get to know her other family members and her friend through their typical features and activities. Her friend David wears glasses, Grandpa has a beard - we will later shave this off, but he will keep the wrinkles on his forehead and his white eyebrows and short hair. Mummy wears her hair at shoulder length and she smiles. It is important especially for children with CVI - central visual impairment - to learn the typical features of the various people around them.”

Watch the EDA PLAY ELIS app trailer

Inspiration

The EDA PLAY ELIS application has been inspired by the specific needs and the vision training of Eliška (in the app called Ellie) and the things she enjoys. Eliška is a girl with central visual impairment (CVI). “Her eyes are in order, yet they fail to cooperate with the centre of vision. To help her understand what she’s looking at, she needs to see and perceive the thing many times repetitively, with a sufficient explanation and a description of what she’s looking at. Her brain doesn’t cooperate with the body in the way that it should; this causes limitations to both her fine and gross motor skills. Eliška is a girl with visual and combined impairments, but she wants to play regardless,” her mother explains.

How do you make a good game for children with CVI? It is important to get their attention. Eliška is captivated by interesting sounds, such as a screeching door, sounds of animals or activities she knows from home, such as washing or baking. The more the children with CVI focus on the game and engage their vision, the better they can learn what they are looking at.

Eliška - an inspiration for the EDA PLAY ELIS app

Thank you for your support

The application has been developed with the support of the Leontinka Foundation and the "Čtení pomáhá (Reading Helps) project.

The development of the app was financially supported by Dow.

Reviews and articles about the EDA PLAY ELIS app

Cause and Effects Apps

Teachingvisuallyimpaired.com, Carmen Willings

See the Cause and Effects Apps list recommended by Carmen Willings, TVI

EDA PLAY ELIS app review

www.wonderbaby.org , Amber Bobnar

"... Each door opens to a new game or activity which increases in complexity as you play. To begin the game, tap anywhere on the screen to open the first door. You find a ball and an apple and are asked to identify which is the ball. Once you’ve tapped on the ball, the apple disappears and the ball bounces up and down paired with a bouncing sound..."

App Review: EDA PLAY ELIS

https://adaptedinnovation.wordpress.com/, Julie Johnson

"...The visual motor tasks needed to access the app are as diverse the visual development skills. The students with higher visual motor skills who are learning to visually target specific pictures and items or are working using their index finger benefit from these more challenging visual motor tasks within the app. Students who are learning basic cause and effect skills benefit from the more simple visual motor and visual skill development features of this app..."

Printable worksheets for free:

Printable worksheets: Let's solve the maze!

Worksheets: black and white colouring pages

Coloring pages with black or white background

Happy Holidays!

The EDA PLAY apps for training of vision and fine motor skills. Thank you for your support!

BY using THE EDA PLAY ELIS APP, YOU ARE SUPPORTING THE NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION EDA CZ, Z.Ú.

The non-profit organization EDA cz, z.ú. is an early intervention centre in Prague, Czech Republic, which provides early intervention services to help the families of visually and multiply impaired children, from the child's birth up to 7 years of his/her age.