Tangible toys (TATO) with sensors and biofeedback mechanism
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Tangible toys (TATO) with sensors and biofeedback mechanism: Explorative work to assess its suitability and feasibility as a tool for treating anxious children
IRAS ID
231422
Contact name
Maki Rooksby
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde & Glasgow City HSCP
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 30 days
Research summary
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health conditions in childhood (up to 40%) and often co-occur with other mental health and neurodevelopmental problems. Anxiety disorders are also suspected to be under-diagnosed amongst children. Even among those children and young people receiving a diagnosis, a significant majority do not receive treatment.
This proposal addresses the unmet need for the availability of anxiety treatments for children by designing a technology to enhance therapeutic benefit both in and out of the consultation room. Using narrative play technique, widely used in developmental psychology, we will explore what sort of opportunities for encouraging anxious children may be helpful and effective for processing their fears and worries at times and in spaces that feel safe to them.
Although the narrative play technique has been widely used in research and therapeutic work, the suitability of our technology for severity of mental health, overlapping neurodevelopmental conditions will be explored in workshops. This will inform us about the primary target user group and their profile for our future work, which will build the technology based upon the design from this study. Specifically, we will explore the effectiveness of sensors embedded in tangible toys to inform on the children’s representational mental states via play, particularly index mental states such as fears and worries. Further, children’s facial expressions, speech and tactile information on the sensors (pressure, proximity, speed) will be explored using this technology to infer their emotions. The responsiveness of the technology (e.g., via a friendly avatar) will be tested to explore to what extent it can elicit a sense of trust and solidarity with child users. Biofeedback technology will be incorporated into our technology so that children’s physiological states while they are engaged with activities can be explored.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NE/0027
Date of REC Opinion
10 Jan 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion