Electronic play mat for autistic children

What it does

It's a new kind of treatment for children's autism which is different from current ones that lack of parents' engagement. By playing well-designed games on this electronic play mat with their kids, parents can bond with kids and help kids recover better.

Your inspiration

Many kids are suffering from autism but unfortunately there is no cure for it. The kids tend to be indifferent to everything including parents. The symptom can only be alleviated if parents find out early enough and start medical and physical treatment which is not affordable for most families. Besides, there's a biggest problem--parents are not involved during the treatment which means they still can't get response from kids or even make kids listen to them. So I take this as an opportunity and decided to design a product that can be shared by parents and kids at home as a precaution against autism or an assistant to other treatments.

How it works

This play mat consists of many hexagonal units and every unit itself is an interactive electronic mat. There is a set of LED light bulbs under the anti-static nylon surface of each unit and they are used to play games. The units can be assembled and dismantled easily with the magnets at every side of an hexagon which makes it possible for users to splice out various spacial configurations quickly. Different configurations means different game levels and kids will gradually be able to improve the sense of space and balance while following and stepping on the lights on the mat. The way of getting kids' attention is simple. When someone steps on the mat, there's a very clear and melodious sound that attracts kids to come around. Then they see animation effects on the mat which makes them want to explore more. I designed 5 kinds of games for this mat, from linear level to plane level, then to spacial level.Each game needs parents' participation and cooperation.

Design process

In order to increase the proportion of parents' participation through the treatment, I decided to make something that could be used at home and affordable for most families. From the result of my user research, I know that autistic children are fond of thins that are in regular and rigid shapes or things that keep repeating all the time. Also, they hate changes and want everything around them to be static. So I came up with the idea of making little hexagonal mats which can be spread on the floor without being too obvious.Besides, it can transform into various configurations by assembling together. The most difficult part is figuring out how to link these mats together with magnets.One reason is that I want users to assemble and dismantle the mats easily without thinking about which side is north pole.Therefore I decided to make magnets rotate automatically when users put two mats close.The aluminum contacts on the magnets are telescopic structures and its concave-convex design not only increases the connecting area of the contacts, but also has the effect of accelerating the efficiency and supports the whole device.Besides, it's more safer because children won't get access to electric current. After all these work, I designed 5 games in which parents and kids can play together.

How it is different

1.I care about what autistic kids like and dislike.The repeating hexagon is exactly what they like.To avoid being too obvious, I make these hexagon mats seem just like normal mats that people spread on the house floor. Kids also hate being touched.So I let their parents to be kids' teammate in games and while playing games kids won't pay attention to skin touch.Instead, they will realize the importance of their parents' existence. 2.Make kids adapt to the product gradually instead of forcing them to accept.I used clear melodious sounds and animation effects to attract kids.When they get used to the mat, they can explore more multi-dimensional configurations. 3.I used the simplest figure to create as many configurations as I can, from one-dimension to multi-dimension, which not only increases the interest but also promotes children's sense of balance and sense of space.Bonding with kids is important, but promoting kids' all kinds of skills is also necessary.

Future plans

More user tests need to be done in future in order to make my product more user-friendly. Also, it would be better if I consult with more experts about how to provide autistic kids with more professional trainings and combine it with this electronic play mat.

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