New Friends The 1st International Conference on Social Robots in Therapy and Education October 22-23, 2015 in Almere, the Nethe rlands

LUDI: play for children with disabilities Play is the most important engine of the child’s development Play is also the most important context to establish friendships, for social inclusion The right to be able to engage in play (Art 31 UN convention of the rights of the child) Children although they have some kind of disability, they remain undoubtedly, first of all, children There is no reason that in this case play can be considered less important than for other children

But… Children with disabilities experience more problems in engaging in play. But they have the same needs as their typically developing peers Professionals are mainly interested in addressing educational and therapeutic objectives and use play as a mean Often the parents are worried, anxious and are not able to play with them the children

7 Play for Children with Disabilities The longest-running European framework supporting trans-national cooperation COST does not fund research itself, but provides support for networking activities

8 Play for Children with Disabilities Developing the best practices emerging from the joint effort of researchers, practitioners and users. new knowledge related to settings, tools and methodologies associated with the play of children with disabilities all existing competences and skills: educational researches, clinical initiatives, know-how of resources centers and users’ associations

10 Play for Children with Disabilities + Tools and technologies for the play of children with disabilities Contexts for the play of children with disabilities Methods, tools and frameworks for the development of the children with disabilities’ play Children’s play in relation to the types of impairments WG1 WG2 WG3 WG4

11 Play for Children with Disabilities LUDI Classification of Types of Play Cognitive dimension Social dimension PracticeSolitary SymbolicParallel Constructiv e Associa tive Games with rules (including videogames) Cooper ative

14 Play for Children with Disabilities Usability Accessibility Outcomes (effectiveness)

15 Play for Children with Disabilities Describing recommendations, developing guidelines for development and design of tools and technology for assessing usability and accessibility

16 Play for Children with Disabilities Using an Ipad under the age of 3 Using KASPAR with children aged 2-6 in a nursery for children with ASD

17 Play for Children with Disabilities

18 Play for Children with Disabilities Initiative of NSGK, Dutch client organisation for children with disabilities

20 Play for Children with Disabilities Inspiration for parents, professionals, researchers, and designers foster discussion and cooperation

Enabling play for children with disabilities can be 3 Invitation for adding your data to LUDI’s database at Play for the sake of play

22 Play for Children with Disabilities With a lot of appreciation to Diogo Pires de Azevedo and Tânia Rocha from Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro Vila Real in Portugal, for constructing the database Thanks to Marco Carnesecchi, University of valle d'Aosta in Italy, and Andrea Bonarini, Politecnico di Milano in Italy for their support.

23 Play for Children with Disabilities

24 Play for Children with Disabilities Crawford, S. K., Stafford, K. N., Philips, S. M., Scott, K. J., & Tucker, P. (2014). Strategies for inclusion in play among children with physical disabilities in childcare centers: An integrative review. Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics, 34(4), Howard, J., & McInnes, K. (2012). The impact of children's perception of an activity as play rather than not play on emotional well-being. Child: care, health and development, 39(5), Levac, D., Rivard, L., & Missiuna, C. (2012). Defining the active ingredients of interactive computer play interventions for children with neuromotor impairments: A scoping review. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 33(2012), LUDI Memorandum of Understanding COST action TD1309 d.d Retrievable via network.eu The playground gang at Pictures Kids apps Graph ToP Slide 20 girl lying on belly playing domino Designer toy: Kristel Laurits Photographer: Ružena Vakulenko Other pictures free available or personal collection