Playful learning through designing toys: Developing a design education toolkit for a non-profit organisation in rural Kenya

Sustainable Rural Initiatives (SRI) is a non-profit organisation in Okana, a rural community in West Kenya. SRI provides the community members of Okana with opportunities to develop practical skills such as carpentry and tailoring. SRI also works with international partners with specific expertise to give local community members opportunities to...

Rebel by design: The merits of rebellious play and how to design for it

Play as a behavioural domain is characterized by freedom and flexibility, which contribute to both short-term and lasting wellbeing. Children play increasingly under supervision of adults, who generally perceive rough and rebellious behaviour negatively. The paper argues that also rebelliousness is a valuable aspect of play. The psychological...

Essential concepts in Toy Design Education: Aimlessness, Empathy and Play Value

The paper aims at contributing to the professional development of toy design education programs. It draws from the practice of a children’s toy design course at Delft University of Technology. It identifies three major concepts that greatly influence toy quality and that students find difficult to understand and apply: aimlessness, empathy and...

Explorascope: Stimulation of language and communicative skills of multiple-handicapped children through an interactive, adaptive educational toy

Very young non- or hardly speaking children with severe disabilities need active guidance to stimulate interaction with their environment in order to develop their communicative and linguistic skills. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems can help this process, provided that they are tuned to this specific user group....