Play and Invent Theme: Children in Lockdown What happens to the mental health of children in lockdown?
Date and Place: 31st May, 2020, India
Team Profile Photo
Profile Photo
Profile Photo
Name : Srishti Garg Title: Student, B.Des Role in the Project : Research analyst
Name : Samriddhi Agrawal Title: Student, class 6th Role in the Project : Test and Feedback lead
Prasanjeet Mohanty User Researcher and UX Designer Ernst & Young
Name : Vasudha Jeendgar Title: Student,B.Des Role in the Project : Research Analyst
Name :Spondona Chattopadhyay Title: Student, B.Des Role in the Project: Research Analyst
Lockdown Scenario CAPTURE A SCENARIO The uncertainty brought about by covid-19 has affected the mental health of children, who are faced with a new routine without the freedom of free play. How Might We: 1.
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How might we shift the focus of the parents on their child from grading free play to unstructured free play? How might children employ free play to tackle increasing level of stress at home caused due to the pandemic? How might a child deal with the concept of social distancing and the lack of physical activities in school routine? How might we inspire value in the product of the child’s play?
REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE FOR THE LOCKDOWN SCENARIO YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK ON
Problem Identified PROBLEM DESCRIPTION How might we enable children to continue to engage in free play despite being indoors under the supervision of adults and faced with the need to constantly be productive, in order to alleviate stress and anxiety in children enhanced by the pandemic?
WHY IS IT AN URGENT PROBLEM? Children are a large and significant part of our population (39%) that has also been forced out of their routines into confinement in their own homes. They depend on the adults around them to make sense of the world and thus are vulnerable to changed stress levels and fear. Studies after SARS and research conducted in china in the past few months shows significantly higher stress levels, and depressive symptoms in children.post quarantine
REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE FOR THE PROBLEM IDENTIFIED
Design Process
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Primary Research Secondary Research Personas Day in the life
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Reverse Storming What ifs Crazy 8s
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Analyse Implement
Research Research was done in context of children’s mental health during the lockdown ● Conducting interviews of parents, children, counsellors and ● Secondary research to understand child’s behavior towards play
Primary Research Insights We conducted a series of interviews of parents, children as well as child psychologists and derived the following insights
01 Children have been
unable to engage with their peers as easily as they previously enjoyed.
02 There has been a surge in screen usage time, seeing as children are relying on online schooling, to engage with peers, and even in moments of boredom.
03 Their is a considerable drive by the parent upon the child to be constantly productive even when at play leading to less
liberty for the child to engage in free play.
Children’s activities before and after lockdown Through an online survey we obtained an average of how children engaged their time before and after the lockdown
Secondary Research Insights
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60%of all children live in one of the 82 countries with a full (7%) or partial (53%) lockdown – accounting for 1.4 billion young lives
Adults dealing with stress and anxiety can unburden them on young children. This makes them more fearful and anxious.
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Stress during this vulnerable period can increase the chances of a
child developing anxiety, depression or even schizophrenia.
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Children have constrained
access to socialization, play, and even physical contact, critical for their psychosocial wellbeing and development
Secondary Research Insights
05 The virtual world has
taken over real-life connections whether it is school, work, recreation, shopping, fitness etc.
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Communication is the key in reminding children
Play is children’s language. They act out
that they are safe and for them to share their fears and anxieties.
pretend scenarios as a way to express concerns, ask questions, and, crucially, reshape a narrative
Shyaam - Happy Go Lucky “ I miss going out to play with my friends but playing alone at home is the only option” PROFILE
DEMOGRAPHICS
Job Title: Student Gender: Male Family Setting: Nuclear Family
Income: Nil Education: Class 6th
FEELINGS
OBJECTIONS
Values & Goals: Happiness, authority, fun Worries: Will this virus catch me if I go out? Influences: Game play, time with friends, validation from parents
Uncertainty Lack of freedom Fear
Rajesh -
The Workaholic
“Work from home is so hectic that I don’t get to spend time with my family” PROFILE
DEMOGRAPHICS
Job Title: Software Developer Gender: Male Family Setting: Nuclear Family
Income: Wealthy Education: M.tech in computer science engineering
FEELINGS
OBJECTIONS
Values & Goals: Competency, peace of mind and making his presence felt Worries: Unstable job situation Influences: Productive work hours, Ease at functioning at home
Lack of social life Household work Imbalanced work life
Meera - The perfectionist “I’m so occupied with housework I don’t always get time to relax with my family” PROFILE
DEMOGRAPHICS
Job Title: Homemaker Gender: Female Family Setting: Nuclear Family
Income: Wealthy Education: B.com
FEELINGS
OBJECTIONS
Values & Goals: Balance, Stability Worries: Hygiene in and around the house, time management Influences: Help from the family, increased family time
Increased household work Tantrums of family members
Nirvaan - The Go Getter “School keeps me engaged and thus it becomes difficult to find ways to spend time with my sister“ PROFILE
DEMOGRAPHICS
Job Title: Student Gender: Male Family Setting: Nuclear Family
Income: Nil Education: Class 10th
FEELINGS
OBJECTIONS
Values & Goals: Achievement, curiosity, discipline Worries: Academic stress, online school Influences: Deadlines, Indoor confinement
Lack of physical activity Increased parental control Increased screen time
Day In Life - Before Lockdown
Day In Life - Lockdown Without Online School
Day In Life - Lockdown With Online School
Design thinking tools ● ● ●
Reverse storming What ifs Crazy 8s
Explorations SOLUTIONS & IDEAS We followed various Design Sprint activities to come up with ideas and a framework of our outcome. Starting with Reverse Storming , following with What if and Crazy 8, we came up with a multitude of solutions . In the next step we tried to make sense by combining and discarding various ideas so as to create solutions for children to keep them engaged in a meaningful manner.
Reverse Storming This method of design thinking looks at a reverse way of identifying the problems. Instead of asking, "How do I solve or prevent this problem?" ask, "How could I possibly cause the problem?" And instead of asking "How do I achieve these results?" ask, "How could I possibly achieve the opposite effect? Thus this helps to eliminate the possibility of arriving at undesirable solutions.
What ifs
Crazy 8 Crazy 8s involves a simple method of brainstorming where one thinks up 8 crazy ideas- here we each did our own crazy 8 and then brought them together Key is to not limit yourself, but really try and think out of our own boxes.
Analysis Analysis of the proposed ideas to come up with final set of iterations
Making Sense
Exploration- 1
Using our Crazy 8 as a basis we tried shuffling and reshuffling ideas to make sense, and figure out a feasible framework and sequence.
Making Sense Exploration- 2
Making Sense
Exploration- 3
Solution
Solution HOW DOES OUR SOLUTION ADDRESS THE IDENTIFIED PROBLEM? In order to address the needs of the children, we propose a simplified
‘In The Mail’ toolkit built on daily prompts.
Child receives daily prompt that poses a new challenge each day
Build based on prompt
USP of the solution ● ● ●
Since it looks at building through found objects, it’s a no-cost solution on the customers part. The framework of the solution makes it easy to replicate anywhere and anytime. If communication is viable, this could be solution that can have a possible impact on underprivileged kids also.
Engage with peers to teach each other and learn of other possibilities
The solution can be used to alleviate stress while in quarantine but also retains value in the post pandemic world where the child can continue to play and engage.
How it works? Backyard Rube Goldberg Machine: A daily prompt reaches the child through existing platforms such as newspapers, each prompt has a challenge that the child woks on to build his/her/zir own rube goldberg machine to do simple tasks around the house based on the challenges.
How it helps? The daily prompts are intended to be open ended and quirky to tickle the imagination of the child. The hope is that through this free play the child is engaged, learns by doing, is not constantly pressured for outcome and has an outlet during lockdown. In addition the parents are less worried
REPRESENTATIVE PICTURE OF YOUR SOLUTION
Day wise segregation of toolkit activities The toolkit is made up of a weekly schedule, with each day of the week bringing a new umbrella of challenges. This way the child is tickled with a range of different activities in different forms.
Power of 10 (Begin by selecting 10 materials/ Objects, next build 10 objects and then finally find 10 uses for each in building);
Scamper (Addition or Subtraction Of elements . Example - Use two round objects, don’t use any glue )
Bingo (Providing various options that they can play throughout the daycross out an activity as you do something)
Challenge friends (Did you make something cool? Try and challenging your friends, or be challenged by them)
Themed (Each thursday prompt has a theme to it, it might be shapes today, and next thursday may be textures)
Play Pretense (Assume a character, any crazy character. Think of how that character would approach the problem and build like that)
Bonanza (Everyone likes an off day, so today go crazy with what you would like to do or buildno restrictions)
It’s another wednesday locked in their houses, with little entertainment and nowhere to go. The children were quite bored. Daydreaming could only do so much when all they wanted was to run freely in the sun
The newspaper brought a friendly surprise, a little brochure for a toolkit named In The Mail, and it was BINGO DAY , All Shyam had to now was to prepare for a adventure of a lifetime
To make interaction possible with a larger number of children , leaflets in newspaper containing prompts on which they can build their own explorations. Each day would work on different concept .
Every object seemed new and exciting, All he could ask now was where do I start!!!!
Feeling dizzy with all the ideas He didn’t see any need to waste any more time
The boring days seemed far away when he could create this magic every day
This was just Bingo wednesday, I can’t wait to see what the In The Mail toolkit has in store for the rest of the week The children can exchange their ideas and explorations with each other whether through word of mouth, asking for help while building or presenting their prompts to each other . This can help them to engage in play with other children as they are unable to meet each other for free play . The simple daily prompt toolkit hopes to keep your child engaged and curious when playing at home. Shyam next day, “Let’s
see what In The Mail toolkit have in store for me tomorrow.”
User Experience HOW DOES THE UX OF YOUR SOLUTION LOOK LIKE?
Link to video:
https://youtu.be/JI70JJiQMeI
Impact IMPACT OF THE SOLUTION
01 02 03 04
Child explores something new everyday while having fun Interacting with friends
Alleviates children’s stress
Un-supervised parent time
Post a representative pic to capture the impact of your solution on your target user’s Life in Lockdown
Proposed Emotional Impact
Less restless ,anxious and frustrated as an impact of the solution
Execution & Viability HOW CAN OUR SOLUTION BE IMPLEMENTED AND SUCCESSFUL?
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02
Using existing platforms such as leaflets with newspapers, whatsapp messages
Utilises objects found in the home for creating their own explorations.
With the help of translators, this solution can be made available in multiple languages
03 The child can engage with peers and find more prompts or even share their explorations. By using existing communication platforms such as internet communities, whatsapp, etc, the process become easier.
Thank you! To our mentor Prasanjeet Mohanty, Children’s counsellor Mrs. Vera, Kartik Handa for helping us with the video and all the young children and their parents who helped us find our way through this project.