PRIMARY
STAKEHOLDERS
Coaches
Friends’ Parents
Grandparents
Peers
Classmates
Teachers
Therapists
Babysitter
Siblings
Mom / Dad
Children with a Mood Disorder
Children with LD
Children with ADHD
Stakeholder Identification/Description
SECONDARY
Context as Related to Specific Stakeholder(s) CONNECTION TO PARENTS STAKEHOLDER TO ENVIRONMENT CONNECTION
“LEARNING” WITH THE PRODUCT • In order to use, child needs to feel urge and know to use the product • Using product makes child “aware” of feelings/energy • Opportunity for reflection with parents and/or therapist
5 Human Factors Emotional
Cognitive
Physical
Cultural
Social
• Gift of Interpersonal Intution: picking up on the emotions of others and externally acting out on them. Cannot stop the surrounding emotions from flooding his or her experience • Emotionally Expressive: having more frequent emotional reactions. • Exuberance: playful, intense and with a lot of excess energy • Low frustration tolerance • “When we look at statistics on how children with ADHD fare down the line, in terms of lower-than-average educational achievement, employment, and marriage stability, one wonders how much is the disorder itself holding people back, versus how the disorder made them feel about themselves and their capabilities from earliest childhood.” Michael S. Jellinek, M.D. • Research on risk and resilience strongly suggests that the most important factors that determine life success for adults with LD/ADHD is not IQ or academic success, but self-esteem, self-awareness, and selfdetermination. • Self-Advocacy: understanding your strengths and needs, identifying your personal goals, knowing your legal rights and responsibilities, and communicating these to others.
• Comorbities • Disruptive Behavior Disorders • Mood Disorders • Anxiety Disorders • Learning Disabilities • Difficult Peer Relationships • Weak executive functions • Working memory and recall • Activation, alertness, and effort • IInternalization of self-directed speech • Controlling emotions, motivation and state of arousal • Complex problem solving
• Physical aggression can result from excess emotion or hyperactivity • Minute by minute scenarios • Boys’ symptoms are more obvious and “external” • Impulsivity or “acting out” • Hyperactivity, such as running and hitting • Lack of focus, including inattentiveness • Physical aggression • Girls’ symptoms are less obvious and more “internal” • Being withdrawn • Low self-esteem and anxiety • Inattentiveness or a tendency to “daydream” • Verbal aggression: teasing, taunting or name calling
• “In school alone, a child with ADHD could receive 20,000 corrective or negative comments by the time he or she is 10 years old.” Michael S. Jellinek, M.D. • Any “gifts” associated with ADHD are often buried under pressures to succeed in the classroom, on a sports field and in social circles. These places are not routinely nurturing for kids who suffer from the disorder. • There is a cultural element in your child’s being labeled as oppositional or defiant. We live within a culture that values teaching children conformity and compliance over self-reliance. This clashes with the tendencies of children with ADHD, who are often perceived as sensitive and charismatic. • If a child struggles in areas that society highly values, such as school or playing team sports, he may feel tremendous self-doubt. Children need to experience a sense of accomplishment to feel good about themselves. It is up to the parents to help your child discover his areas of competence and reinforce those strengths. • It has been argued that the current education system is an outdated model based on principles developed in the Industrial Revolution: children are like products, and schools are like factory assembly lines that use the same approach to assemble each product. The model does not accommodate the unique needs of individual students.
• Children with ADHD get themselves into social binds without being aware of their predicament or of how they got there because they lack awareness of the consequences of their social behavior • Positive peer relationships contribute to a childs immediate happiness and may be important to her or her long-term development. • In some cases, children with peer problems may also be at risk for behavioral and mood disorders, substance abuse and delinquency as teenagers. • Their inappropriate social behavior leads to acrimony at home and difficulties sustaining and establishing friendships. • Poor peer relationships gives rise to depression and anxiety. • Peer relationships can be just as important for a child’s success as grades are. • Social stigmatization further diminishes self-esteem and subsequent opportunities for peer interactions. Thus, a vicious cycle emerges in which rejection leads to less chance to practice appropriate social behaviors, which then evokes greater exclusion.
Benchmarking ScreamBody
“ScreamBody is a portable space for screaming. When a user needs to scream but is in any number of situations where it is just not permitted, ScreamBody silences the user’s screams so they may feel free to vocalize without fear of environmental retaliation, and at the same time records the scream for later release where, when, and how the user choosest.” Main body made of open cell polyurethane foam (acoustic foam) with a latex barrier around that. http://web.media.mit.edu/~monster/screambody/
Iso-Pedic Memory Foam Classic Pillow
Muffles screams well
Baby Muzzle
A noise-canceling mouthpiece that fits over the heads of infants and toddlers ages 0 to 3 to mute their cries, fits of rage, shrieks of delight, any esophageal emissions that slice through the air. The beauty of the Baby Muzzle design is that it doesn’t prevent children from voicing their discontent, it merely relieves those in their vicinity from the burden of having to listen to it. A fuzzy pink strap--some derivation of mesh or otherwise ventilated material I believe--with an embedded sound diffuser comprise the cozy-looking mandible cloak, which affixes snugly at the back of joyous bundles’ heads with a Velcro closure. Once in place, precious buttercups are primed to be seen but not heard nearly anywhere.
Japanese Shouting Vase
Turn your loudest, most urgent frustrations into mere whispers with the Shouting Vase. The plastic jug is designed to fit over the contours of your mouth and absorb your screams and shouts, “storing” them in the vase and emitting a softer version of your angry cries through the tiny hole at the base. http://www.japantrendshop.com/shouting-vaseholds-your-anger-p-293.html
Stress Balls
Using the same noise-slashing circuitry found in high-end headphones, the structure of the Baby Muzzle’s mouth cup establishes an internal barrier that both blocks high-frequency, and erases low-frequency sound waves. The result: complete, sweet silence. Nearly. Since the baby still has to be able to intake air through its mouth (i.e., breathe) fabric ventilation provisions and an incomplete seal on the kisser cup permit some noise to escape. However, the Baby Muzzle guarantees its decibel level will not rise higher than the hum of an airplane in flight, or the chatter of a dinner party. http://www.dudeiwantthat.com/omg/fools/the-baby-muzzle.asp
Comfort/Security Objects
A comfort object, transitional object, or security blanket is an item used to provide psychological comfort, especially in unusual or unique situations, or at bedtime for small children. Among toddlers, comfort objects may take the form of a blanket, a stuffed animal or a favorite toy. Security objects are used by toddlers to relieve tension and anxiety. They are usually soft, cuddly things, like a blanket, a diaper, or fuzzy teddy bear. Children seem to need them most when they are going to sleep or visiting new places, or when they are away from their parents. Children use their security blankets at many different times, like when they are with a new baby-sitter, when their mother is busy, or when they are teething, cranky, or hurt themselves in anyway. Children vary when they need it but it seems to be universally helpful at sleep time. We think that special objects are very important to have. http://www.ecpcla.org/2013/08/23/security-blanket/
No long term benefits
Fidget Toys
Good Fidgets are: - Silent - Unobtrusive - Tactile (not visual) - Safe - Tools (not toys) - Inexpensive - Teacher-approved An activity that uses a sense other than that required for the primary task, like listening to music while reading a textbook, can enhance performance in children with ADHD. Doing two things at once focuses the brain on the primary task. Fidgets: mindless activities you can do while working on a primary task. “distractions” -No actual release of energy or tension, just temporary distraction -More for secondary stakeholders
Diagramming the Ecosystem
HOT SPOTS ENVIRONMENTS
Storyboard(s) of Use-Case Scenario(s)
Child is overwhelmed with energy and cannot keep it under control
A child feeling anxious
Sibling is having a tantrum
Child screaming/ tantrum at night
Charging teachers/ adults and throwing kids into trashcans Taking “pull stuffy” and pulling/stretching until body is worn out
- At bedtime - Being away from parents - Not being able to successfully complete a task - After being punished or criticised
ADHD child picks up these emotions and begins to act them out himself
Causes stress within the family which causes the tantrum to escalate
“Comfort softty” is used to cudle as a reminder of home/parents and the repetitive tactle motion of rubbing or scratching the different textures brings theraputic relief
When a child is given a softy, he or she also recieves the accompanying story book. The story will teach the child the appropiate way to use the softies when he or she is angry, too energized, anxious, sad and any other emotions that could be dificult to deal with. It will teach the child that these emotions aren’t a bad thing, but there are good and bad ways to act out on them. The softies/story can be tools for parents to implement into a young child’s life while their awareness of cause and effect is not developed, as well as their knowledge on how they can help themselves.
In this case, both children can use pull or scream stuffy to help put their emotions at ease
Screaming continues without slowing down
Current next step: Parent drives with child in car until the screaming stops and the child falls asleep With new product: Screaming into “special stuffy”
When the screaming stops: child can use the “comfort stuffy” to help fall asleep
Ideation Sketches
Form Studies
Works-Like Prototype Comfort Objects
Material performance testing: Shredded Foam Stretch Armstrong
A VERY VISCERAL TOY
Material performance testing: Teddy Bear Stuffing
Material performance testing: Foam Football
Material performance testing: Elastic
Feels-Like Prototype MATERIAL BOARD
Latex Therapy Band
Memory Foam
Stretch Armstrong
Sand Stress Ball
Furry
“Security objects are used by toddlers to relieve tension and anxiety. They are usually soft, cuddly things, like a blanket, a diaper, or a fuzzy teddy bear..” “Transitional objects... tactile reminders of home.”
Looks-Like Prototype
Unique Stuffed Animals
Form Studies Soft and Cuddly
Foam vs. Stuffing locations Clay Form Studies
Inspiration:
OSTRICHPILLOW Fabric: 95 % Viscose – 5% Elastomer Filling: Polystyrene microbeads Examples of character/book/learning sets:
Dear children and parents I'm Biff and I prefer to eat the concerns of children so that you can no longer get angry! You better take me with you everywhere, so that nothing can go wrong ! Children have phobias, fears, needs and problems. Children can paint their worries or fears or write, stuck in the zipper mouth of a worry-eater and pull the zipper. Not that that all problems are equal solved, but a first step has been taken and - any bet! - They made us feel better if the problem once safely rests behind the zipper! If the parents of the child find the letter or drawing, the next day they can talk about the problem and a small gift or a consolation prize in the Sorgenfresser- stuck mouth.
Childrens books that teach kids about living with ADHD and how it doesnt make them bad kids: • Steven James: I Just can’t Pay Attention • Cory Stories: A Kid’s Book About Living with ADHD • Shelley: The Hyperactive Turtle • It’s Hard to be a Verb!
http://www.mytoys.de/Schmidt-Spiele-Sorgenfresser-klein-Biff28-cm/KID/de-mt.to.ne01/2417171
INSIDE OUT (Pixar film)
Character Development: Character 1
Character 2
Character 3
Its theraputic tool: scream therapy • Must have a “chunkier” body (or section of body) to accomodate a mass of high density memory foam for children to scream into
Its theraputic tool: “pysical exertion”... (pulling/stretching/squeezing) Inspiration: • Stretch Armstrong • Therapy Bands • Stress Balls • Arms and legs can be tugged/stretched • possibly ears/horns/body parts that can be used like a stress ball • Elastic/rubber as arms/legs or inside them
Its theraputic tool: tactile sensation and comforting • This one is about being able to hold it/hug it (like a security blankie/bear) • A main component of security objects are their textured accents (like grosgrain ribbon, satin edging, ect.) Possibilities: • The “skin” could have a few textured stripes • fluffy/snuggly like a normal stuffed animal
Inspiration
USER PERSONA - ISSUES/NEEDS/HUMAN FACTORS
Boy/Girl ages 4-8 • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Physical aggression resulting from excess energy or emotion Acting out how they feel Weakened executive functions • Lack of control of emotions and problem solving Commonly have learning/mood/anxiety disorders Can have difficult peer relationships • Social stigmatization Impulsive Cannot easily function in current education model Exclusion Poor self-esteem Excess emotions/emotional sensitivity Majority of time spent at home or daycare Relies on parents for guidance/teaching/disciplining Beginning to compare oneself to peers Beginning stages of competitiveness
FINAL DESIGN ATTRIBUTES
CHARACTER #1 • High density foam to suppress noise from screaming • “Chunkier” body • Material surrounding memory foam needs to be breathable. (moisture from screaming)
CHARACTER #2 • Must include elements to pull/ tug/stretch/squeeze • Stretch material possibilities: latex, heavy elastic • Squeeze material possibilities: gel, sand, foam • Provides physical exertion
CHARACTER #3 • Must include more texture to provide tactile comfort • Texture options: ribbon, grosgrain, fluffiness (fur like) • Provides repetitive motions • Soft and a form that can be cuddled
Fit together aesthetically
• Can work as a team or separately