Joshua King

Senior Project Advisor

Yasmine Elglaly

Document Type

Project

Publication Date

Winter 2024

Keywords

Occupational Therapy, OT, kids, children, play, toy, adapted toy, design, research, interview, Sensory Processing Disorder, senses, accessibility

Abstract

My project is a design for an adapted toy that occupational therapists (OT) can use when working with kids. OTs are people who help others to be able to do daily tasks that they need to do to live their lives. This can look like helping a person who has been injured or has a disability to accomplish tasks like getting dressed or feeding themselves. It can also involve helping school children to improve their writing or to use assistive technology. My project started out as an idea from my mom who is an OT and was using a coffee tin with a hole in the lid and some balls with the goal of working with the kid to be able to drop the ball into the tin. With this concept as a base, I interviewed another OT and did research into accessibility issues to create an improved design to be more interesting for kids and more flexible allowing an OT to adjust it to suit the needs of the kid using it. The final design consists of a 3D printed base with electronics to control lights and sound that play when a ball is dropped inside as well as an app that connects to the toy over Bluetooth and allows an OT to adjust the settings for the lights and sound.

Department

Computer Science

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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