Magic land: play therapy on interactive tabletops

We describe an ongoing study that explores the introduction of digital technology into play therapy. While digital technologies are increasingly used in educational and directive therapeutic contexts with older children, they are largely missing from non-directive play therapy settings with younger children. Based on the play therapy research and practice literature we describe the design and ongoing evaluation of Magic Land, a set of digital play activities for interactive tabletops used in non-directive play therapy with younger children.

[1]  Paul Marshall,et al.  Beyond one-size-fits-all: how interactive tabletops support collaborative learning , 2011, IDC.

[2]  Massimo Zancanaro,et al.  Dimensions of collaboration on a tabletop interface for children with autism spectrum disorder , 2011, CHI.

[3]  Patrick Olivier,et al.  Digital mysteries: designing for learning at the tabletop , 2010, ITS '10.

[4]  Xiang Cao,et al.  Telling the whole story: anticipation, inspiration and reputation in a field deployment of TellTable , 2010, CSCW '10.

[5]  David Coyle,et al.  An Evaluation of a Solution Focused Computer Game in Adolescent Interventions , 2009, Clinical child psychology and psychiatry.

[6]  Antonella De Angeli,et al.  The fantasy table , 2009, IDC.

[7]  Yunde Jia,et al.  EyeScreen: A Gesture Interface for Manipulating On-Screen Objects , 2007, HCI.

[8]  Cyndi McNeil Sallman,et al.  Play therapy: an overview and marketing plan , 2007 .

[9]  Diane Waller,et al.  Art Therapy for Children: How It Leads to Change , 2006, Clinical child psychology and psychiatry.

[10]  Ann M. Aviles,et al.  Child and Adolescent Social-Emotional Development Within the Context of School. , 2006, Child and adolescent mental health.

[11]  Pierre Dillenbourg,et al.  Sharing Solutions: Persistence and Grounding in Multimodal Collaborative Problem Solving , 2006 .

[12]  K. Dautenhahn,et al.  Towards interactive robots in autism therapy: background, motivation and challenges , 2004 .

[13]  Tom Wolfe In search of self , 2002, Nature Neuroscience.

[14]  Teri Rueb,et al.  Billow: networked hospital playspace for children , 1997, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[15]  Kate Wilson,et al.  Play Therapy: A Non-Directive Approach for Children and Adolescents , 1992 .

[16]  L. Carmichael,et al.  Dibs in Search of Self , 1964 .