2000 Conference Proceedings
Go to previous article
Go to next article
Return to 2000 Table of Contents
Computers as tools for play and communication for children
with disabilities
Jane Brodin,
Stockholm Institute of Education, Disability & Handicap
Research
Introduction The first computer play centres,
’Datatek’, for children with disabilities were
started in 1992 as a pilot activity. The main aim was to give
children and adolescents with all kind of disabilities and on the
level before reading and writing, opportunities to play and to
get access to computers (Göthberg, 1995).
Computer play centres can be compared with toy
libraries/lekotek, as the philosophy is similar. Common to all
toy libraries is the stress on play as a means for child
development, and the challenge of making play available and
beneficial to parents and children. The basic philosophy is that
a toy library constitutes a complement to existing services in
offering a more comprehensive support for families and children
with disabilities. Most toy libraries focus on pre-school
children (up to seven years of age) and the use of play and toys
are adapted to each child’s special needs (Brodin, 1996;
Lindstrand, 1999).
Many parents of children with severe disabilities complain that
they experience difficulties in activating their child and state
that their child does not play independently and that he/she is
passive (Brodin, 1991). For this reason, parent’s require
advice and supervision on play and how to activate a child with
severe multi-disabilities. Parents have often high expectations
on computers as tools for play, probably based on applications
used in other fields of the information society. No referral from
a medical doctor is needed for a visit to the computer play
centre, just a need for play support identified by the parents
(Jonson, 1998; Sirén, 1999). The computer play centres are
non-demanding, amusing, service functions offered to families
with children and adolescents with disabilities at a low
fee.
Aim and method
The aim of this paper is to report some results from the project
"Computer play centres - a way to support play and communication
in children with disabilities?". Data were collected, with
questionnaires, observations and interviews with parents and
staff. The interviews were transcribed and together with the data
from the observations they were compiled and reported as case
studies (Jonson, 1998).
Results
The number of children who visited the centres were 1122, out of
which 734 were boys and 388 girls. Most children were between
seven and fifteen years of age and the average age of the
starters were six to seven years. The interest in computer play
seems to be more obvious for boys than for girls. It is
reasonable to believe that this is partly a result of
parents’ and teachers’ attitudes to technology,
partly a result of childrens own play preferences. Most children
participated in a number of sessions consisting of at least six
to ten visits, sometimes more. Many children who visited the
computer play centres have multi-disabilities but the main group
of children who visited the computer play centres were children
with slight or mild impairments. Children with mental retardation
constituted the main group in all categories except for severe
motor disabilities.
The computer play centres have also received many study visits
(5178 visitors) and the main groups were teachers and parents,
who wanted to be familiar with the activity and find out if this
kind of activity could be a complement to other kinds of
educational support for a child in need of special support.
The project is divided into two parts; an evaluation of the
Datatek activities from the start and a research project on
gender and ICT. Although the research project did just start in
September 1999, some data will be reported at the
conference.
Discussion
The purpose of this paper was to give an idea of the very first
computer play centres ’Datateks’ in Sweden, and to
give a brief view of computers as tools for play and
communication for children with disabilities. More boys than
girls visit the computer play centres, which can also be seen in
other activities where technology is involved. It is reasonable
to believe that boys and men in general are more interested in
technical solutions than girls and women, but so far we do not
know.
The satisfaction of the parents involved can also be a result of
the fact that they had chosen the activity themselves, and made
all arrangements without having a referral from a doctor. Some of
the parents compare computer play with habilitation
activities.
The results of the interviews show that many children who have
not been able to play before, start to play with the computer.
More children succeed than the parents expect, Many parents say
that they do not have any expectations on computer play but just
want to find out if it may help their child in any way. Computers
are ’friendly’, i.e. that the child can repeat the
same programme time after time because a computer never gets
tired. A computer is often of more interest for a child than
other play tools. Some parents also mention that it is play - but
also work and regard childrens’ play as work for
development. The objections to using computers when playing might
be that it is a solitar play where the child sit alone in front
of the computer, but for children with disabilities this is not
true as many of the parents sit down with the child and interact
(Sirén, 1999). They have a social interaction directed
towards the same goal and the play activity give them may
occasions to interact and build up a mutual understanding and
exchange.
The study also focuses on parents expectations on computer play
and how computer play affects the development of play and
communication in children with severe disabilities.
Acknowledgement
This project is supported by The Swedish National Inheritance
Fund. and the Swedish Communication and Transport Research
Board.
References
Brodin, J. (1991) Att tolka barns signaler. Gravt
utvecklingsstörda flerhandikappade barns lek och
kommunikation. [To interpret childrens’ signals. Play and
communication in children with profound mental retardation and
multiple disabilities. Stockholm University: Department of
Education.
Brodin, J. (1996, September) El juego en los ninos con
deficiencias mentales graves. [Play in children with profound
mental retardation] Salta, Argentina.
Göthberg, B. (1995) Slutrapport från Datatekprojektet
[Final report from the Datatek-project]. Vällingby: The
Swedish Handicap Institute.
Jonson, U. (1998) Datatek - vad är det? [Computer play
centre - what is that? ]Stenhamra: WRP International.
Lindstrand, P. (1999) Datatek. En studie om föräldrars
erfarenheter av och förväntningar på
datatekverksamhet [Computer play centres. A study on parents'
experiences and expectations on computer play]. Stenhamra: WRP
International.
[Sirén, N. (1999) Datatek - en beskrivning av
verksamheten ur personalperspektiv [Computer play centres. A
study on the activity from staff perspective]. Stenhamra: WRP
International.
Go to previous article
Go to next article
Return to 2000 Table of Contents
Return to Table of
Proceedings
Reprinted with author(s) permission. Author(s) retain copyright.