Students from CMD and DSS contribute positively to Digital Life research through projects
03-07-2020
This Spring students from Communication and Multimedia Design (CMD) as well as the Digital Society School (DSS) students -both part of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences- completed valuable study assignments for our research group Digital Life as their external partner.
Playful Hands
For CMD, the project - called ‘Playful Hands’ – was initiated during the minor Designing User Research. Three third-year students, Daan van Baars, Sophiya Thangarajah and Lucky Zwagerman, spent a total of 10 weeks analyzing, researching and creating.
Toys4Therapy
At the same time, three students of the DSS -Aparna Borkar, Anca-Maria Murgoci and Maria Sagiri worked actively on the 'Toys4Therapy' project for 20 weeks, also on behalf of Tamara Pinos Cisneros, researcher at Digital Life.
Both projects were about researching children -in the age of 8 to 12 years old- with Cerebral Palsy, their hand movements and finding a way to perform hand exercises in a playful, motivating way that these children can take advantage of. Tools used in recent therapies are often expensive and complex. Moreover, these are only available in rehabilitation centers and not at home, whereas in the case of the recent COVID-19 developments this would be more useful.
Communication and Multimedia Design
The CMD project group designed a set of building blocks, which can be put together in a playful way using magnets or connection pieces - exactly according to an example or to your own imagination. Children can either play with or against each other.
Click here to view CMD's ‘Playful Hands’ video.
Digital Society School
The DSS students have developed Happy T(h)inkers tinkering cards (with the 'Tinkering' method), a carefully composed 'DIY -Do It Yourself- kit', which consists of activity cards, object cards and a playful guide for parents. This fun DIY kit allows children to follow hand therapy at home.
In this way, children are inspired to creatively use objects found in their home, explore shapes, learn new skills and enjoy the feeling of creating their own hand therapy toys.
In the future, it can be integrated with technology to provide physical therapists with data that will help them accurately monitor the child's progress.
For more information you can take a look at the website of DSS.
Click here to view DSS’s ‘Toys4Therapy’ video.
Many thanks to these students for their positive contribution to the research of Digital Life in favor of children with CP!