Designing interactive soft toys for children with autism to improve communications through sensory relaxation

Abstract

Autism is a spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by limited social skills. This paper explores a design process of interactive soft toys for children with autism that might enhance various ways of their communication. For local autism awareness events, two soft design prototypes were developed utilizing different sensory modalities (light, sound, and vibration). The researchers include the result of preliminary observation in the paper. The preliminary analysis suggests that interactive soft toys have potentials to engage children with autism through different features of the toys and evoke sensory relaxations and encourage them to talk about their experience.