Peer-reviewed article
Design and validation of a multisensory game-based tooth brushing education tool for children with visual and hearing impairment.
Nalini HE, Chaly PE, Asokan S, Sudhakar U, Balakrishnan K et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study designed and tested a multisensory game-based tool to teach tooth brushing to children with visual and hearing impairments. The tool was developed through expert consultation and tested with 30 children (15 with visual impairment, 15 with hearing impairment) over 4 weeks. Both children and experts found the tool easy to use, enjoyable, and effective, with children showing measurable improvements in tooth brushing skills.
Key points
- Children with visual and hearing impairments have high rates of poor oral hygiene, gingivitis, and dental caries
- Experts (dentists and special educators) validated the tool with perfect content validity scores (I-CVI and k* = 1.00)
- Children with visual impairment rated the game as easy to understand (I-CVI = 1.00) and enjoyable (I-CVI = 0.93)
- Children with hearing impairment showed perfect agreement on all aspects of the game
- Both groups of children showed statistically significant improvements in tooth brushing skills (W = 0.00, P < 0.05)
Limitations
The study tested a small sample of 30 children over only 4 weeks and does not provide long-term follow-up data on skill retention. The country or countries where the study was conducted are not specified in the document, and the study design does not include a comparison group to determine if the improvements are due to the multisensory game specifically or other factors.
Abstract
Background Children with sensory disabilities exhibit a poor oral hygiene and a high prevalence of gingivitis and dental caries. Tailored multisensory oral health education interventions may improve tooth brushing skills and oral health. To develop and validate a multisensory game-based educational intervention to teach tooth brushing to children with visual and hearing impairments. Materials and methods A developmental research design was used. A prototype was developed after literature review and expert interviews. This was validated by dentists and special educators and field tested among 15 children with visual impairment and 15 with hearing impairment with 7 play sessions over 4 weeks. Comprehensibility and acceptability were assessed through structured feedback, and effectiveness was measured by evaluating tooth brushing skills. Results Experts agreed with the relevance, sequential accuracy of the brushing technique, and clarity of the game (Item-level Content Validity Index (I-CVI) and k* =1.00), confirming excellent content validity. Dentists suggested minor modifications regarding sequencing flexibility and a special educator suggested audio/light cues. Children with visual impairment rated the game and the tooth brushing technique as easy to understand and the components easy to handle (I-CVI = 1.00), enjoyable (I-CVI = 0.93), and some suggested larger models. Children with hearing impairment showed perfect agreement across all aspects of the game. The children showed improvements in their tooth brushing skills (W = 0.00, P < 0.05). Conclusion The developed game-based educational intervention demonstrates strong validity and acceptability for oral hygiene education among children with sensory impairments. These findings support further evaluation of long-term effectiveness and application in oral health promotion.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Multisensory game-based tooth brushing education tool with tailored design for children with sensory disabilities
- Population
- 15 children with visual impairment and 15 children with hearing impairment
Key finding
Content validity was excellent (I-CVI and k* = 1.00) with expert agreement on relevance and clarity