Abstract
The authors developed educational software using 3-D Computer Graphics (CG) animation for children with intellectual disabilities. The software aimed to allow learners to practice reading Japanese hiragana characters by looking at CG animations of hiragana characters and listening to their sounds. The leaners can simultaneously watch the mouth movements of hiragana characters while listening to their pronunciation in order to understand the relationship between hiragana characters, their pronunciation, and mouth movements. The authors also developed drill and practice software as well as game software for the purpose of learning hiragana characters. These three types of software were utilized at a special support school in Kurume, Japan, with our university students assisting children in using the software in the classroom.
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the software, the learning process of the children was videotaped and analyzed. The results showed that children could read hiragana characters more accurately after studying with the software.
