Designing with and for groups of developmentally diverse children

Other conference contribution, 2015

The PhD research presented in this paper concerns how to involve groups of developmentally diverse children in the design process. It also investigates the roles that adults, such as parents and teachers play within the design process. The project Touch-AT, in which context the PhD work is performed, aims to design and develop touch-based technologies for training of emotional and social behavior with and for groups of developmentally diverse children in grades 6-9 in Swedish special education. This paper reports on the work so far which has focused on getting to know and build rapport with the target group, to understand the context of Swedish special education and learn about current ways of working with socio-emotional training within this context. It presents coming activities and outlines the research approach as the project moves into the design phase in which participatory design session will be held with the children.