Marina Makri has a BSc and MSc in Biological Science from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) and a MA in Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy. She is a PhD candidate in School of Medicine, AUTh in the field of Genetic Counseling. She works at the Greek Association of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders as a coordinator and responsible for all the Erasmus+ European projects, since 2015 and she has also worked at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens. She is an external collaborator of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN) of School of Medicine-Washington University, USA. She is a senior researcher on issues of genetic counseling, neurodegenerative disorders and family caregivers. She has authored and co-authored peer-reviewed articles in international journals and book chapters. She has taken part in various National, European and International Conferences and Meetings.
Mobile Game for Cognitive Skills Development and Concept Teaching for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities (Mild and Moderate Intellectual Disability, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Down Syndrome)
Background: Serious games (SG) have been developed for the improvement of the attention, learning skills, problem-solving, decision-making, daily life activities and working memory of people with Intellectual Disability (ID), but there is a gap in other cognitive skills such as visual recognition of colors, calculation, logic, attention to details, dexterity, multitasking, memory, and accuracy. Based on the literature, there is a big need to be created new games for cognitive skills development and for health professionals to be able to use them as interventional tools.
Objective: The study aims to improve the main cognitive functions of the participants through the “Games4CoSkills” intervention, and to develop a standard intervention for people with ID based on a new SG, to improve their quality of life and to create a game based on the mobile phone thus, adults with ID can interact with it even at their homes.
Methods: The study will be conducted in 3 stages: evaluation of the cognitive skills of adults with ID by their health professionals; observational study to detect the level of cognitive skills of adults with ID and after 6 months will be created the SG and will be conducted the stage of the quasi-experimental study, intervention. Participants will assign to the intervention group (N = 120) and will play the SG for 4 months.
Results: The results of the ongoing controlled trial will determine whether a mobile SG, can be recommended for system usage and the improvement of the cognitive skills of adults with ID as a tool of intervention and as a SG with entertaining and educational character at home.
Conclusions: The results of this study will contribute to knowledge on improving several cognitive functions through a SG based on individuals with ID needs and creating a new SG as an interventional tool in a safe and effective way of intervention.
Keywords: Mobile game, cognitive skills, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Intellectual Disability
