Creating TUIs using RFID: a case study based on literacy process of children with Down syndrome

Teaching children with intellectual disabilities is a big challenge to most parents and teachers. Teachers use learning strategies to develop and enhance motivation for com-plex learning tasks. Literacy acquisition is one of them and it is essential for the rest of the life of children with intellectual disabilities. In this context, technology can support specific strategies that will help children approach tasks in their daily life activities. This paper pre-sents a Tangible User Interface (TUI) using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to sup-port literacy for children with Down syndrome. The research focuses in the use of physical objects to give children an interactive and physical sensory experience to develop literacy skills. The design of the TUI framework is based on the integration of two RFID sensors with tags embedded in 3D printed objects and low cost toys. The research also shows the results of the measures taken with some materials covering the tags. The framework was integrated and successfully validated in a special education school