(This article is a work in progress. If you would like more details immediately, just drop me a line)
Com-U-Play is a project I worked on for the last couple of months in my 3rd year at University. It is a method of ‘communication-through-play’ tailored towards children with Selective Mutism.
It creates a playful environment for communication, which should help relieve the anxiety surrounding conversation and further help develop the child’s confidence when speaking aloud.
What was the project brief?
How might we support all families, carers and communities to play and learn more creatively at home?
What was my initial response?
To focus on children with Selective Mutism (SM) as my target audience since learning and play are key factors in their development.
The problem I was trying to solve.
The lack of confidence that a child may have when speaking aloud or having natural conversation.
The Final Solution?
A short film depicting use-cases of ‘Com-U-Play’.
Research
My research began on the NHS website for Selective Mutism. From there, I learned;
Selective Mutism (SM) is a severe anxiety disorder.
It causes a person to become unable to speak in certain situations.
It usually starts during childhood and, if left untreated, can persist into adulthood.
The person does not refuse or choose not to speak at certain times, they are literally unable to speak.
SM is also prevalent in children who are learning a second language.
When the child is ‘expected’ to speak, it triggers a freeze response and they begin to feel panicked, almost like stage fright. It is this panic and anxiety that makes talking impossible.
I then decided to dive deeper into selective mutism in the UK. I came across an organisation called “SMiRA” (Selective Mutism Information & Research Association).
Their aim is not only to support families with selectively mute children but also to provide information to professionals involved in the upbringing of said children.
I had planned to contact SMiRA to organise an interview but due to the short time frame and the strict protocols at SMiRA, this was unfortunately not completed. It is something that I really wished I could do as it would have provided so many more insights to take forward.
The questions I had planned to ask were;
How does SM affect play?
How can play be encouraged within families experiencing SM?
What is the biggest developmental impact of SM?
With more digital forms of ‘play’ around now, do you think this has a positive or negative impact on SM and why?
Is there anything that you feel is overlooked when helping children with SM learn and play?
What do you think is a key element for a child overcoming SM? How can this be reached?
I plan to design for children who are struggling to overcome Selective Mutism (SM) which is negatively impacting their learning and playing. I want to create something that helps the family and the child gain confidence in speaking and having natural conversation, while still encouraging play.
After looking online, there are various apps that enable text-to-speech but I feel this still takes the child away from playing as they have to spend time constructing the message. I want to make sure my response moves away from digital text-to-speech to creating a more playful environment.
Conversation Structure
I decided to look into the structure of conversation through play. The NHS describe a process of talking and playing together:
Be face-to-face with your child. Get down to your child’s level to encourage them to interact with you and copy you.
Let your child choose the activity, song, book or toy. Use your child’s interests to lead the play and interactions you have together. Join in with their play.
Then...
• Comment and talk about what is happening in your child’s play.
• Keep it simple. Use short phrases/sentences and use emphasis to make important words stand out.
• Pause and wait. Give your child time to reply.
• Take turns in play as well as while you chat.
• Praise your child’s attempts to use words.
• Imitate and add. Reflect back on what your child says to you by adding a word or action.
This will be important to take into the design process and to make sure this process can be maintained throughout.
Prototyping
During the prototyping phase, I used ‘The Prototyping Triangle’ which was brought to my attention by Colin Burns.
I found this interesting and felt it was a good, structured way of protoyping and gaining various insights into different areas.
Prototyping for Role
I produced some prototypes of how my response would solve the issue it is intended to solve.
I created paper prototypes and laid them out on the floor for people to interact with.
User testing results
Conducted with 2 people;
- Person 1
- Person 2
Person 1 suggested more colours.
Person 2 disagreed and liked the uniform colour scheme.
Both liked the size of the pads (26cm x 16cm) and felt it would suit the size of children’s feet.
Both thought some more variety of questions/ responses would be good but they understood that this could be exponential.
Person 2 proposed the idea of using the pads for a “hide and seek” type game. E.g. “Find the word ‘Tag!’”.
They both liked the modularity of the pads and how they could be placed anywhere.
Overall, they enjoyed the experience and said it would be a fun and interesting way to communicate.
This feedback was encouraging and made me feel like I was on the right track. I valued the opinions of the testers while also reminding myself of the scale and timeframe of the project (in relation to the ‘variety of response’ query).