Speech therapy aid for children with SLI

QueConQué is an attention-enhancer didactical system aimed to support children diagnosed with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) engage in their speech therapy.
I developed this prototype in 2006 as part as a year-long Capstone Project leading to my Professional Degree in Design *

Process

• Exploratory user research, competitive analysis and literature review
• Contextual inquiry with speech therapists and children.
• Two-Way mirror observations
• Opportunity space definition
• Solution proposal
• Physical prototyping
• Expert interview validation
• Iterate final visual design and illustration

Opportunity Space: Preparing for therapy

According to the therapists interviewed, the most common and problematic obstacle they encounter when treating their patients is children’s variable predisposition to therapy. Children affected by SLI are specially sensitive to their environment and, since they have a hard time communicating their emotional states, they’re prone to tantrums that reduce the effectiveness of their therapy time. Therefore my intervention focused on the hour that precedes therapy. It sought to create a mood continuum between the child’s home-environment, transit and therapy by involving the child, his parents/main caretakers and therapist.

The final prototype

The final prototype consists on a portable game with basic language acquisition functions like icon/picture matching semantic equivalence matching. The device is meant to be used in transit (in the car) from home to therapy.

Every time the child matches two images correctly, a reward is unlocked (sticker). This sticker is part of a collection: an album stored by the therapist in the classroom.

The sticker and album’s theme serves as a conversation starter for the therapist, who can now lead the child’s attention to the next activity.

The reward loop includes a small price or special activity whenever the child completes one theme sheet on the album.

Process

Before the final prototype I designed several different alternatives, looking to simplify the interaction  with the toy and to make it both appealing to the child and easy to use for the caretakers.

 

  

Some concepts constantly present in the design process were: portability, feed-forward, and clear affordances for holding and drawer-opening.

Future work

• Long-term engagement testing with diary studies.
• Test lock effectiveness and possible ‘gaming the system’.

Lessons learned

Throughout the development of this one-year project I learned a lot about the dynamics of motivation and engagement as well as child development. I also was able to explore how visual language can play a role in spoken-language development, and how to create visual languages attractive to children.

This project also allowed me to understand the principles of human-centered design as well as to become familiar with some of the special constraints of a children-oriented design process.

Thanks to my faculty advisors:

Ximena Ulibarri & José Miguel Tagle