TheraPlay creates a set of materials, inspired and based on Montessori materials, to act as a method of initiating and facilitating communication and conversation between a child 5+ years old and an adult. Conversation and expressing emotions to an adult is often difficult for young children just grasping emotions and language. As a result, children may keep thoughts and emotions to themselves, impacting their overall mental health and feeling. Utilizing color, texture, and shape, TheraPlay attempts to help solve the lowering quality of mental health in children 5-11 over the pandemic and the 20% of untreated mental issues that exist in one-fifth of children, before the pandemic, according to the American Psychological Association.

TheraPlay uses prompts to start and associates color with emotions to draw initial attention while using texture and shape as a point of engagement and a conversation starter. Based off the conclusions about color by Chattanooga, Tenn. (2021), texture by Iosifyan & Korolkova (2019), and physically polling students on color and texture using samples of materials.

Brief:

Alex:

Some children with Autism struggle to convey their emotions to people around them. Patch, our soft plushy creature, will aid children with autism by lighting up a certain color correlating to a button with a face on it. Our project focuses on a small demographic; however it is important to assist everyone with different types of complications. Our project helps better the understanding and bond between a child with autism and their caretaker by simplifying the process of expressing their emotions. Our group has done research into what are some daily issues a person with autism goes through. We found that ⅓ of people with autism are non-verbal. Patch is easily functional and simple to understand. Patch’s stomach has six little patches that each have a face on them. Each face has a color on it which when pressed, lights the stomach the same color, making it easy to communicate your emotion. 

Zoe:

A common characteristic of those on the Autism spectrum is difficulty expressing emotions. The design is a stuffed animal with color patches, where each color correlates to a different emotion. When the child presses one of the patches, a light emitted from the animal's stomach communicates the child's emotion.

Patch is designed to provide non-verbal children on the Autism spectrum with an alternative way to communicate their emotions, and to aid their caretakers in responding to their emotional states.

Patch is a stuffed animal with color patches surrounding the stomach. Each patch has a face whose color represents a specific emotion. When a child presses each patch, a button beneath the patch and connected to an Arduino causes the stomach to light up  with the color that correlates to that emotion. The caretaker will be able to see the light and identify the child's emotion. This is a direct and intuitive  way for these children to communicate how they are feeling.

Learn more: https://www.paroseal.co.uk/

Humans exact quite a toll on the environments around us. Our daily activities create greenhouse gasses, fuel pollution, and lead to copious amounts of trash. Unfortunately, not all of that trash makes it to landfill or recycling centers. But what if you could improve your environment simply by taking a walk around your neighborhood? 

The Mini-Environmental Footwear Challenge is designed to get you to think of how seemingly mundane activities like walking, hiking, and running could be part of the solution to our environmental problems. 

In this mini-challenge, you are tasked with designing a pair of shoes that reduce litter while you walk (or run, hike, climb, etc!). We want you to have fun with this challenge, come up with playful ideas, and surprise yourself with how creative you can be. 

By the end of the challenge, you will have created a sketch of your idea. We invite you to submit your litter-busting footwear idea to be entered in a unique opportunity to participate in a NuVu summer studio experience.