Every year, PLP comes together to create an exhibition showcasing the different projects PLP students came up with. This year, our projects had to solve a problem occurring with a certain age group. Lets get in to it.

My Idea

My idea was to create a wearable device that will help kids with autism or a cognitive disorder make it easier to communicate with other children.

What is Autism

Autism is a range of conditions that are characterized by challenges with social skills and communication. People with autism can also have problems with knowing their strengths and differences and behaviours. The autism “spectrum” is the wide range of autism possessed by each person with the disorder. Autism tends to appear around the ages of two to three years old and in some cases as early as eighteen months. Kids that have autism are usually much more quiet and worried about others and don’t like to speak to other kids or even adults verbally. My idea is to create a wearable device that will help kids with autism or a cognitive disorder make it easier to communicate with other children.

Why I Chose this Topic

The problem I am trying to solve revolves around kids at school. Usually, kids like to hang out with friends and play tag or hide and seek. For autistic kids, it’s hard for them to communicate to the other kids whether they would like to play or not. Most of the time, they don’t know how to even initiate a conversation. They either haven’t developed the skills or just haven’t been taught to them.
For regular kids on the playground, they develop communication skills at a young age; it feels like second nature to them. For autistic kids, they face challenges. They’re scared or are unsure of what might happen when they approach these kids. That is the problem I am trying to solve: how I can develop and manufacture a product that makes it easier for autistic kids to interact with others on the playground, without them having to speak verbally.

Prototypes

Prototype 1
A wearable device to show interest and emotions. Two colours that indicate two different emotions. “I want to play” and do not disturb.
Prototype 2
A message board with face emotion stickers. The child would bring the sticker board and the stickers with them and put the stickers on the board give examples.
Prototype 3
A message board with animals stickers to show moods during transitions. Same idea as prototype 2 but with a smaller clipboard and animals.

After creating three different and unique prototypes, I needed to choose which one I was going to perfect and finish as my final product. I chose to do the customizable wristband, as I think that was my strongest idea for a product. The first wristband I created before was just a draft, and it was only a concept idea. I looked at some website sources for other “non-verbal communication devices” that confirmed my wristband idea. In the first product, it had two colours, symbolizing the “Want to Interact” phase and the “Do not Disturb” phase, and it would have the two foldable sides. In my final product, I created three sides, adding a “Neutral” phase where the child is undecided or may need assistance.
Red = I don’t want to be disturbed
Yellow = I am unsure or I may need assistance
Blue (ideally green) = Come talk to me / I want to play

 

Why It’s Effective

The “Emotion Cuff” is very useful for both the child wearing it and the parent or caregiver.

Comfort: The cotton creates a soft surface so it doesn’t hurt when you have it on, where as a material like Velcro could irritate the skin. Kids with a cognitive disorder may have sensory issues, meaning they dislike things that are uncomfortable or rough. The cotton material helps with this issue.
Simple and easy: Making it easy to understand is key when creating a product for autistic kids. They can have trouble learning new things that might be difficult to understand, so making it simple is great for them.
Fashionable and subtle: Making the wristband fashionable can empower the child when wearing it. Making it subtle also doesn’t make them a target towards the other children.
Affordable, washable and reusable: the cuff is a simple design, made from inexpensive cotton and can be reused.