dos Santos Nunes, E.P., da Conceição Júnior, V.A., Giraldelli Santos, L.V., Pereira, M.F.L., de Faria Borges, L.C.L. (2017). Inclusive Toys for Rehabilitation of Children with Disability: A Systematic Review. Universal Access in Human–Computer Interaction. Design and Development Approaches and Methods. UAHCI 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10277, 503-514.
In this article, the issue of giving children with disabilities the toys that healthy children play with is researched. It turns out that children with disabilities do not have the same efficiency in their development with these toys because of restrictions caused by their conditions. They require more accessibility; therefore, this should be considered when looking for appropriate toys for such kids. Fortunately, there are already toys specifically made for children with disabilities
Healey, A., Mendelsohn, A., CHILDHOOD, C. O. E., Sells, J. M., Donoghue, E., Earls, M.,… & Williams, P. G. (2019). Selecting appropriate toys for young children in the digital era. Pediatrics, 143(1)
The article addresses issues that might occur when providing toys to children. These problems regard safety not only in terms of the use of these toys but also how these toys are treated and stored. Different environments and different cases are mentioned, and the general advice provided by the article is to be as precise as possible in choosing and storing toys for kids and also carefully searching for appropriate toys for children with different levels of development.
Jenkins, N. A. (2017). Choosing Toys that Matter: Which Toys are Most Effective in Helping Children Develop Social-Emotional, Language, and Gross Motor Skills. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 125.
This dissertation reviews different toys and tools adopted in modern facilities to improve different areas of development in children. The issue that is emphasized is the ability of staff of these facilities to be able to evaluate children in terms of which toys are most suitable for them. If this is not done properly, children may have an inefficient play experience, and their development might be impaired. When assessed correctly, nursing facilities can provide children with the most suitable toys for them that will assist their development. They shall also be able to conduct necessary guidance and observation, and be capable of analyzing them. Moreover, staff must be capable of providing play activities that would affect specific areas of children’s’ development.
Jeong, S., Breazeal, C., Logan, D., & Weinstock, P. (2018). Huggable: the impact of embodiment on promoting socio-emotional interactions for young pediatric inpatients. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13).
Authors address the problem of hospitalized children being stressed and isolated and how interactive technologies can help them cope with these problems. While other kids have an opportunity to socialize with their peers in a usual environment, communicate with their relatives and better understand the world they live in, such kids can not do this. The authors suggest social robots to be used in such facilities for better development of these children and to help with their stress. It was proven that such engagement positively affected them in their social development.
Jones, M. (2018). The necessity of play for children in health care. Pediatric Nursing, 44(6), 303-305.
The article addresses the importance of play for hospitalized children. The author claims that these children are vulnerable due to their disease and their partial isolation due to staying in a nursing facility. This makes the role of play and toys more important for them in comparison to healthy children, and they require extra attention in these terms from their caregivers and facility staff.
Kara, N., & Cagiltay, K. (2020). Smart toys for preschool children: A design and development research. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 39, 100909.
This study researches the ability of smart toys to help with the mental development of children. It also discusses how to make such toys and implement them in practice. Yet, the authors state that their use requires additional research. Nevertheless, in this specific study they showed to be efficient, and in some cases they excelled usual toys in terms of such performance.
Verver, S.H., Vervloed, M.P. & Steenbergen, B. Facilitating (2020). Play and Social Interaction between Children with Visual Impairments and Sighted Peers by Means of Augmented Toys. J Dev Phys Disabil 32, 93–111.
The research investigates how children with mild vision impairments play using audio-augmented materials. This would help such kids with their development as play is crucial in these terms. It turned out that these children are able to explore such materials and have a quality experience playing this way, though this did not cause social interaction or any complex play behavior. Nevertheless, cooperational and symbolic play behaviors were present. This proves that children with mild vision impairments are capable of adequate behavior in terms of communicating with peers while playing.