What assistive technologies exist to enable participation in play?

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The potential of robotics for the development and wellbeing of children with disabilities as we see it

BACKGROUND: Rapid technological development has been opening new possibilities for children with disabilities. In particular, robots can enable and create new opportunities in therapy, rehabilitation, education, or leisure. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to share experiences, challenges and learned lessons by the authors, all of them with experience conducting research in the field of robotics for children with disabilities, and to propose future directions for research and development. METHODS: The article is the result of several consensus meetings to establish future research priorities in this field. RESULTS: Robots have a huge potential to support children with disabilities: they can play the role of a play buddy, of a mediator when interacting with other children or adults, they can promote social interaction, and transfer children from the role of a spectator of the surrounding world to the role of an active participant. To fulfill their potential, robots have to be 'smart', stable and reliable, easy to use and program, and give the just-right amount of support adapted to the needs of the child. Interdisciplinary collaboration combined with user centered design is necessary to make robotic applications successful. Furthermore, real-life contexts to test and implement robotic interventions are essential to refine them according to real needs. CONCLUSIONS: This article outlines a research agenda for the future of robotics in childcare and supports the establishment of R4C - Robots for Children, a network of experts aimed at sharing ideas, promoting innovative research, and developing good practices on the use of robots for children with disabilities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mapping Robots to Therapy and Educational Objectives for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The aim of this study was to increase knowledge on therapy and educational objectives professionals work on with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to identify corresponding state of the art robots. Focus group sessions (n = 9) with ASD professionals (n = 53) from nine organisations were carried out to create an objectives overview, followed by a systematic literature study to identify state of the art robots matching these objectives. Professionals identified many ASD objectives (n = 74) in 9 different domains. State of the art robots addressed 24 of these objectives in 8 domains. Robots can potentially be applied to a large scope of objectives for children with ASD. This objectives overview functions as a base to guide development of robot interventions for these children

Usability and accessibility of toys and technologies for play for children with disabilities: Scoping review of guidelines and tools.

For creating play opportunities for children with disabilities toys, games, apps, robots, and other technological products are as important as for typically developing children. Above all the products have great potential for inclusive play. However, many anecdotes from clinical practice and data from research show the challenges in finding and choosing a suitable toy or technology, in evaluating these play objects on their usability and accessibility for given children, in designing and producing a toy usable for all children. This paper describes the scoping review carried out to investigate: (1) which guidelines and tools regarding usability and accessibility of toys and technologies for play for children with disabilities exist, (2) what is their possible use for different stakeholders involved in play for children with disabilities, (3) what are the strengths and the weaknesses of the guidelines and tools. For this review, sources identified by experts, different databases, and hand-made search results were considered, which yielded to a final set of 15 guidelines on usability and accessibility of toys and technologies for play for children with disabilities that was explored in detail. Each guideline was reviewed by two reviewers using the adapted AGREE II instrument. The review resulted in the selection of 10 guidelines on usability or accessibility of toys and technologies, only 5 had a specific focus on play. For most of the guidelines the rigour of the development and the supporting evidence were not described. Further research and development is needed, as adults involved in play for children with disabilities need support in handling or creating the appropriate toys and technologies

Guidelines for parents, professionals, designers, makers and researchers on toys and technologies for play for children with disabilities: How to take usability and accessibility aspects into consideration?

Many toys, board or videogames, apps and even robots are nowadays available in many countries for play for children. However, a lot of these are not appropriate for children with disabilities. Instead of enabling play opportunities, frustration and withdrawal can be the case. Parents, siblings, therapists, teachers are often searching quite some time for the most suitable play object. Designers and engineers are interested in creating play objects with a universal design. Nevertheless, daily practices show challenges for these different persons involved in supporting children with disabilities’ play. As the review of scientific and grey literature presented in Chapter 5 gained only 10 guidelines on usability and accessibility of toys and technologies for play for children with disabilities and no tools for measuring usability or accessibility. Working Group 2 of the COST Action TD1309 “LUDI – Play for Children with Disabilities” has developed guidelines for taking usability and accessibility of toys and technologies for play for children with disabilities into consideration. The guidelines for parents, professionals, designers, makers and researchers have a pragmatic character and aim to support reflections and decision-making processes for choosing, adapting, designing or studying a toy or technology. The guidelines have references to the new gained knowledge about creating play for the sake of play opportunities and evaluating usability and accessibility of play tools. Further evaluation of the presented guidelines is needed to support the adults in their efforts creating play opportunities for children with disabilities

Back to the future?

De (iets) oudere ergotherapeuten weten het misschien nog: zelf slings maken op de naaimachine, of een drempelhulp van hout zagen. Met de komst van commerciële leveranciers van hulpmiddelen werd de ergotherapeut vooral adviseur. Brengt de opkomst van Do It Yourself (DIY) technologie ons weer terug naar de rol van ontwerper

Using social robot PLEO to enhance the well-being of hospitalised children

Hospitalisation is stressful for children. Play material is often offered for distraction and comfort. Weexplored how contact with social robot PLEO could positively affect a child’s well-being. To this end, we performed a multiple case study on the paediatric ward of two hospitals. Child life specialists offered PLEO as a therapeutic activity to children in a personalised way for a well-being related purpose in three to five play like activity sessions during hospital visits/stay. Robot–child interaction was observed; care professionals, children and parents were interviewed. Applying direct content analysis revealed six categories of interest: interaction with PLEO, role of the adults, preferences for PLEO, PLEO as buddy, attainment of predetermined goal(s) and deployment of PLEO. Four girls and five boys, aged 4–13, had PLEO offered as a relief from stress or boredom or for physical stimulation. All but one started interacting with PLEO and showed behaviours like hugging, caring or technical exploration, promoting relaxation, activation and/or making contact. Interaction with PLEO contributed to achieving the well-being related purpose for six of them. PLEO was perceived as attractive to elicit play. Although data are limited, promising results emerge that the well-being of hospitalised children might be fostered by a personalised PLEO offer

The Representation of Children’s Participation in Guidelines for Planning and Designing Public Playspaces: A Scoping Review with “Best Fit” Framework Synthesis

For children, meaningful participation in community life includes being able to access places for play. Such community playspaces are potentially important for all children, including those with disabilities. Yet, children are rarely asked for their views on the design of playspaces, which can further contribute to exclusionary practices and undermine children’s rights to share their views on matters that affect them. In this scoping review, we aim to analyze guidelines and identify strategies for supporting children’s participation rights when planning public playspaces. Guidelines are practical tools used by local policymakers when creating community playspaces, which are important sites for children’s outdoor play. In total, forty-two guidelines were identified that addressed children’s participation rights, along with community involvement. Qualitative evidence synthesis with a “best fit” framework approach was used, informed by Lundy’s model of children’s participation. The findings revealed the importance of initial community involvement as a critical prerequisite. Strategies for children’s participation mostly concerned “space and voice” (for children of diverse abilities), with little attention paid to giving their views due weight. This evidence shows that there is a significant gap in knowledge surrounding policy development and implementation to support adults and children to cooperate equally in designing playspaces. Future directions for research in children’s participation require a focus on combined community–children participation approaches in public playspace design. Such work could strengthen and facilitate the role of adults as bearers of the duty to implement the rights of children. This review generated inclusive strategies in planning public playspaces, which could support local policymakers in this complex multi-layered process.Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-06-07 (joosat);Part of Special Issue: Addressing Disability Inequities: Environments, Society and WellbeingLicens fulltext: CC BY License</p

Making children's rights mainstream: Taking children's participation into account when (re)designing a public play space.

Presentation given at Child in the City seminar which has been postponed in 2021 due to Covid pandemic however could take place on 19th and 20th May 2022 in Cascais, Portugal. The ESR5 project was outlined in a parallel session with the theme "The importance of implementing children's rights in urban planning: development and design". More information about this seminar can be found at Child in the City International Seminar – How to make children’s rights mainstream in local policy planning