WonderFish: Design and Evaluation of a Social Exergame with Developed Bodily Interplay Dimensions for Children with ASD

Exergaming interventions have been shown to improve physical and cognitive functions in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, designing exergames specifically targeting the motor and social skills of children with ASD remains an important open area. To address this gap, we developed WonderFish, a social exergame incorporating bodily interplay theory explicitly developed and designed to engage children with ASD alongside their parents. This paper presents the design and evaluation of WonderFish across four game modes, assessing its impact on children’s motor and social skills, parent-child interactions, and user experience with eight pairs of children with ASD and their parents. We conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses, including game scores, physiological data, behavioral observations, surveys, and interviews. The results indicate that the game mechanism effectively elicited targeted motor and social behaviors during parent–child collaboration across the different modes. However, while parent-child dyads showed high levels of engagement, their interaction dynamics varied notably between the four modes.