Designer’s toys help autistic young improve lives
Print Edition
Toys designed for autistic children are on display at the Shanghai Library as part of an exhibition featuring the creations of local university students.
The toys require children to join toy parts by matching colors and sizes of mortise and tenon, and there are cheerful words of encouragement when they get it right.
There are reminders when mistakes are made. The toys are said to be helpful in training autistic children in language acquisition and muscle coordination.
The “Hedgehog Garden” toys were designed by Xu Yuanyuan, a student at East China University of Science and Technology.
Xu, who is in her third-year study of product design, took a course last year in which the teacher encouraged students to design products for public welfare or vulnerable groups, instead of for profit.
At the time she had read reports about the A Cafe, a charity where young autistic teenagers worked as baristas and waiters with clients played by volunteers to help the children develop social skills.
With the help of schoolmates who are volunteers with the Red Cross Society, Xu had the chance to observe autistic children and their families.
“I saw that a child beat a toy car repeatedly while normal children would imitate driving,” she said.
“After checking with some medical and educational books, we found that autistic children lack responses with the outside world and thus lack guidance in playing. They like repeating simple things.”
Her designs were based on applied behavior analysis, a widely accepted rehabilitation training approach for autism.
Each skill is divided into small steps and children have to repeat each step. This helps autistic children gain abilities that children aged between 2 and 4 should have, such as matching, pointing, naming, sorting, arranging, symbolizing, accomplishing and understanding. All these abilities are very important for children in language learning after the age of 5.
She chose cold colors, such as blue and green, which are more favored by children with autism.
As such children like grasping things and repeatedly beating them, Xu made some parts of the toys difficult to grasp so that children have to practice more and develop more hand strength.
All the products are in large size so children also need to crawl, squat, kneel and sit when playing them, thus practicing muscle coordination.
Parents can check how the children have learned on an app on their phone. Xu said this function was expected to give parents encouragement and the incentive to continue with such education.
In addition to her toys project, Xu was recently named as a role model at the university due to her outstanding academic studies and creative designs for vulnerable groups.
One of her designs was a stationary bicycle for senior citizens. Wearing VR glasses, elderly people can still go for a ride with the sensation of movement. The design won an innovation pioneer award in a competition for services for the elderly.
Another design was a wearable belt to guide visually impaired people on the sidewalk. It can also detect missing bricks on the sidewalk and report it to the system so that authorities can repair the road as soon as possible.
Xu also has a patent for the design of a crop straw disintegrator that farmers can use rather than burning waste.
She said: “I think designers should not only design for money, we should also care for those who need help. I hope my designs can make the world a little bit better.”
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