Improving children’s proprioceptive skills and motoric abilities through interactive playful training
In the domain of motor skill training, the project researches how playful training can be designed to be short and long-term effective and engaging. The target group chosen for study are children with sensory processing disorders (SPD), related to bodily awareness and movement mastery issues. The goal is to support the development of proprioceptive skills through playification, a strategy similar to gamification but with less emphasis on challenge, and more on the playful re-negotiation of activities within the participant group.
The project designs a training activity and digitally enhanced training equipment. The development of interactive training equipment focuses on short-term effectiveness through playfully enhancing communication, guidance, and feedback between the trainer and the child. Playification and the circus training methods are social methods that work towards fostering a sense of majestic outcome, empowerment, and success. These are key success factors in recognised SPD therapies.
The overall approach is consistent with the “SAFE” (Sensory-motor, appropriate, fun, and easy) approach recommended for SPD training. The project is done in collaboration between Uppsala University and circus pedagogues at Cirkus Cirkör, and will involve both trainers and children in the design process. The project builds on the group´s previous research in the field of playification and a first domain investigation for the project carried out during the spring of 2017.
Project period
2018-01-01 – 2021-12-31
Funding
Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet)
Project members
Project members at the Department of Informatics and Media:
Annika Waern, project leader and contact
Elena Márquez Segura