ExciteTray: developing an assistive technology to promote selffeeding among young children

Abstract

Typically developing children usually master selffeeding by the age of three years. However, children with Cerebral Palsy and other developmental disabilities encounter great difficulties acquiring this instrumental ability. In an effort to motivate young eaters in the process of acquiring selffeeding abilities, we set out to develop ExciteTray a customized selffeeding assistive technology. We describe the initial stages of an iterative design process consisting of interviews with domain experts, rapidprototyping, and evaluations with children. Based on our findings, we formulated preliminary design principles for a selffeeding assistive technology: draw attention without causing distraction; motivate the child during the various stages of selffeeding; facilitate facetoface interaction between caregiver and child; adapt feedback to the cognitive and motor ability of each child. We explain how these principles were implemented in a prototype, discuss safety considerations and describe future work.