The Use(fulness) of Therapeutic Toys
Peter Fikar, Florian Güldenpfennig, Roman Ganhör · 2018
Early Intervention Services support children with disabilities in their development from early age on. To this end, therapeutic toys are regularly employed within training sessions. These toys often draw on interactive elements to make exercising more appealing, and hence, to motivate the children. While there is some research about interactive therapeutic toys in HCI, these works are often standalone design deployments, exploring specific health or rehabilitation applications. In contrast, this paper offers different lenses for investigating qualities of therapeutic toys to highlight the following aspects: therapeutic and playful/motivational efforts, the potential of technology in supporting suitable affordances, ease of use, flexibility and improvisation. The lenses enable guided explorations of existing toys or novel design proposals, resulting from a thematic analysis of a) in-situ observations of therapeutic exercises (n=18), b) in-depth/informal interviews with Early Intervention Specialists (combined n=16), and c) demonstrations of their favorite toys (n=21).