Assessing Developmental Difficulties in Children Through Connected Smart Toys

From a psychology perspective, the use of playful activities with tools can be a powerful method for the assessment and monitoring of children’s psychomotor development. The traditional manual measurement techniques used in play contexts have limited accuracy and arguably the people who can carry out these tests should be experienced specialists. The improvement of sensor-based technology and the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm in recent time, provides an interesting opportunity for the design of platforms, devices, and methods which could improve the assessment outcomes. Capitalising on this opportunity, the authors propose the design and development of an IoT-based platform composed of smart toys designed specifically for the assessment of children’s psychomotor development. They have designed and built sets of sensor-embedded toys mimicking some of the most used tools in the current validated psychology scales. The data obtained from the toys are shared through a common Internet-based platform. The diagnostic toys have been tested with children in schools and the promising results obtained suggested they could be a promising tool for child development experts. Ultimately the goal is to offer an accessible platform that delivers reliable metrics to child development experts, educators or even parents.