LINKX

by Helma van Rijn
http://www.helmavanrijn.nl/
http://studiolab.io.tudelft.nl/vanrijn/LINKX

Exploring autism
I explored how autistic children like to play and what would be a good way to learn language. I realised the children have trouble with giving meaning to words. Therefore they should learn the words of physical objects around them. For these children repetition, direct feedback, and rewards are very important. They have an excellent memory and like toys which they can organise.

The concept: LINKX
My project resulted in the concept design LINKX. LINKX aims to learn autistic children the words of objects in their own environment. This helps them learn the meaning of words. This is done by means of speech-o-grams (pictograms with sound added to it). Parents record words inside them and attach them to objects before play starts.
Children can link blocks to these speech-o-gram. Each link results in lights that go on and a sound that is played. The sound moves into the block. You can link blocks and speech-o-grams over and over and this will eventually make them remember the word.

You can also link blocks together. When one block owns a sound, it will move to the other block. Again doing this again and again will stimulate language learning