MIAUSE

MIAUSE – the playful device to stimulate bonding – 2nd year Bachelor 2017

Aim: Designing a tool that stimulates the bonding process between parents and their visually impared child between the age of 6 months till 3 years old.
Theme: Social and Physcial rehabilitation
Client: Bartimeus

This project is about improving the bond between parents and their visually impaired child within the age range of 6 months to 3 years old using playful objects. Children with a visual impairment develop themselves in a different way, due to their lack of sight. That is why they express themselves different from others. Parents have difficulties interpreting their child’s behavior because of this. This misinterpretation can cause frustration and anxiety for both the child as the parent(s). Therefore, it is important to stimulate the bond between parent and child, to create a better understatement of each other.

A playful object, MIAUSE, was designed to stimulate the bond between parents and their visually impaired child between the ages of 6 months and 3 years. This design consists of three objects: a cat, house, and booklet. Each object has lots of possibilities for several bonding techniques like auditory, tactile, visual mirroring and joint-attention, which have been proven to stimulate the parental bond. Other techniques used to improve bonding or increasing interest are close contact, in-out practice and fantasy stimulation.

The cat and house stimulate exploration, mirroring and joint attention by using of multi-sensory stimuli like sound, light, texture, bright colors, and color contrast. Furthermore, they contain visual similarities to motivate mirroring. The booklet is meant to guide the parents of the child; it contains a story to create a narrative for both to play in and to connect the cat and house, along with some suggestions for executing bonding behavior.

Have a look at the report below for further information about the stakeholders involved in this project, the research that has been done, our design process, and our end result.