Collaborative puzzle game – an interface for studying collaboration and social interaction for children who are typically developed or who have Autistic Spectrum Disorder

In this paper we present the design and some initial observations of the Collaborative Puzzle Game, an interactive play system designed with two main purposes: 1) to study social interactions and collaboration in boys with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and with typical development, and 2) to test the feasibility of the system as an instrument for the rehabilitation of social abilities of boys with ASD. Designed to run on the DiamondTouch, an interactive table supporting multi-user interaction, the CPG allows to implement “enforced collaboration”, an interaction paradigm where actions on digital objects that can be performed only through the simultaneous touch of two or more users.