The clinic provides care for children with nuerodivergency. These kids have certain sensory needs that help regulate their emotions, and we have been tasked to provide toys that can do this. The cuddle box would provide pressure, vestibular (movement and balance), and tactile input through the stretchy layers. The steamroller would provides the same sensory inputs as the cuddle box. Both of these can help soothe a child, as they will allow the kid to have their stimulation needs met. We want to create a design that can meet these sensory needs, while allowing bigger kids to partake in the tools. Most of the designs online are intended for children under 10, but this clinic serves a variety of ages.
Design Specifications for Steamroller
Design Specifications for Cuddle Box
There are a few designs of the steamroller and cuddle box online, and the clinic showed us what design they wanted. These designs tend to be meant for younger kids (under 10), but the clinic has a few teenagers who also want to participate in using these tools. The online steamroller has adjustable pressure, which will meet the various sensory needs for children who appreciate different amounts of pressure. The old steamroller broke, so we need to find more durable bands for the new design. The old cuddle box had mesh that was too big for the younger children, and their arms and legs would fall through the holes and cause issues. Both of the old designs were small, so sizing up would be preferable to allow the older children to participate.
Our first design closely follows the designs we found online. Both the steamroller and cuddle box designs found online can hold a small child. We decided to keep the two separated, as the clinic had issues with the previous design that connected the two tools. For this design we would follow the dimensions of the designs online closely, and use similar materials as the ones listed online. This would be the easiest method, and the most tested method since these items have been sold numerous times and have been tested to ensure they are safe and reliable.
For this design we wanted to create something that would withstand a lot of rough play. The children at the clinic have been known to play rough, and a few sensory toys they had in the past were damaged due to this. Therefore, we essentially took concept design one and made it more resilient. This was done by adding thicker pieces of wood, using stronger materials, and reinforcing weak points. Along with this, we wanted the design to be useable by all the kids at the clinic. This meant we had to come up with something that could be used by a toddler and a teenager. To do so, we had to adjust the designs we found online, as most of them were intended for children under 10. The design features larger dimensions for the cuddle box, and the width of the pressure roller is longer so that all of the kids can fit through. We also wanted an adjustable pressure for the pressure roller, because one child may have a different pressure sensory preference compared to another. Adjustable bands were added with the ability to remove them, because we noticed that the ones listed online had extra bands to purchase. We did not want the bands to break and then the design be broken, so a replaceable band was an important design choice.
This design is more creative, featuring a dinosaur design. The structure would be somewhere between concepts 1 and 2, with a larger size to accommodate older kids and a larger safety factor to ensure it can handle the added weight. The cuddle box would also mimic concept 2 and be suitable for older kids, and this one would have a design on the outer fabric to make it more aesthetically appealing. We would use greens and blues as they are calming colors, and it would fit in with the forest/nature theme that the clinic already has. We would include adjustable bands with this design as well, and provide extra bands to the clinic so that they could replace the bands when needed.
