Designed interactive toys for children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

Children with cerebral palsy (CP) need to go through intensive rehabilitation exercises to develop and enhance their fine motor control in daily living. However, most of them cannot persist the regular repetitive exercise session using traditional tools for a long time. To provide a playful and attractive rehabilitation environment, toys are introduced to motivate children for exercises. This study aims to develop diverse toy modules and combine with basic blocks from LEGO to support various hand and arm functional training. The joyful color, cartoon animals, visual and audio feedbacks are proposed to increase the modules' attractiveness. Their interchangeable handles and knobs can support different levels of exercises, which improve the toy modules' accessibility for children with CP. Preliminary user testing in the hospital suggests that toys are warmly welcomed, easy to manipulate and play. We plan to collect user performance data and track the toys' long-Term effect in rehabilitation training to aid therapists in evaluating individual recovery progress.