From left to right: Shan Pruthi, Hayes Lee, Jeffrey Wang, Marisa Duncan
We all know that play is fun and that children naturally play, but we may not recognize that play is actually vital to the growth and development of children. This was true for Marisa Duncan, a fourth year systems design student, who had a team looking for a project to work on for their required fourth year design project.
Last summer, Marisa came across a Discovery Lab offered by GreenHouse in conjunction with KidsAbility, a local organization that works with children with various developmental delays. In the course of talking with staff, caregivers and clients, Marisa and her team learned about the importance of play and the ways KidsAbility uses play-based activities to help their young clients develop crucial life skills.
They also learned about one specific gap: while there are many toys that children can use to play with on their own as well as toys that encourage children to play together, there was a missing link around toys that support what is called associative play, where children play in close association with one another. Marisa’s team had their work cut out for them.
They joined the GreenHouse Workplace Innovation Program where they worked with Brendan Wylie-Toal as their coach in determining their path forward. Over time, they developed prototypes for a toy for children with disabilities to encourage their development through play, which they call Peakaboard. They received feedback on their design, and are ready to move into the final design stage for manufacture for KidsAbility, other similar organizations as well as for schools and individual families.
“Right now our challenge is that our toy offers the opposite of social distancing,” Marisa says. “When the KidsAbility centres reopen, we will be testing our final design.”
Peakaboard may also provide a career path for Marisa who notes that her entire team had spent work terms in software and so had to learn about engaging in the mechanical side of engineering, as well as relearning about the importance of play.
Peakaboard prototype