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Ogden the Space Caterpillar was a game created by myself and Penda Thomlinson as part of our MA. What we have tried to achieve with Ogden is a product which will help young children to develop motor control skills in a non threatening environment.

Focusing on the needs particularly of Dyslexic, Dyspraxic and Dysgraphic children we have tried to create a product which can be used to help develop better fine motor movement whilst at the same time allow them to practice making the shapes of letters.

So now you are thinking “why not just give them a pencil and paper and let them get on with it?”

For some kids it isn’t as easy as this. Perhaps they have already tried this and failed. Some children with sever dysgraphia become so stressed when holding writing implements they literally snap them in half.

Controls for the game are a 6 degrees of freedom ‘flock of birds’ device that is embedded in the ‘head’ of a caterpillar. The child is free to move the control however they chose to (please remember this project was being developed in 2004 – before the Wii was released).

By taking the principles of writing out of the threatening environment it is possible to allow the child to practice skills which can later be transferred into a more naturalistic writing style.

The game is also designed to improve co-ordination. At low levels, the child can complete the tasks easily, but as they become more advanced, the level of accuracy needed to complete a task also increases, thus providing constant challenge, but again in a very non threatening environment.

The game was shortlised for NESTA funding in 2005 – sadly we made it to the final seven but did not get any further.