![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
Abstract
Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) offer promise to the play of children with significant physical impairments, as BCI technology can enable disabled children to control computer devices, toys, and robots using only their brain signals. However, there is little research on the unique needs of disabled children when it comes to BCI-enabled play. Thus, this paper explored the lived experiences of play for children with significant physical impairments and examined how BCI could potentially be implemented into disabled children’s play experiences by applying a social model of childhood disability. Descriptive qualitative methodology was employed by conducting four semi-structured interviews with two children with significant physical impairments and their parents. We found that disabled children’s play can be interpreted as passive or active depending on one’s definition and perceptions surrounding play. Moreover, disabled children continue to face physical, economic, and technological barriers in their play, as well as play restrictions from physical impairments. We urge that future research should strive to directly hear from disabled children themselves, as their perspectives may differ from their parents’ views. Also, future BCI development should strive to incorporate video games, recreational and entertainment applications/platforms, toys and switch-adapted toys, and power wheelchairs to better support the play of children with significant physical impairments.
Assistive technology research should strive to examine the social, infrastructural, and environmental barriers that continue to disable and restrict participation for disabled children and their families through applying a social model of childhood disability and other holistic frameworks that look beyond individual factors
Future research that examines the needs and lives of disabled children should strive to directly seek the opinions and perspectives of disabled children themselves
Brain-computer interface development should strive to incorporate video games, recreational and entertainment applications/platforms, toys and switch-adapted toys, and power wheelchairs to better support the play of children with significant physical impairments
Implications for Rehabilitation
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the children and parents who shared their stories with us; without them, this study and research would not have been possible. Special thanks also go to Lisa Strohschein and Matin Dohkt Taghirad for their help, support, and guidance throughout this research project.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Correction Statement
This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2024.2350776).
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Carina Siu
Carina Siu received a BA Honors in Sociology, with a focus on critical disability studies, at the University of Alberta. Drawing from the intersections between the social model of childhood disability and disabled children’s childhood studies, her undergraduate thesis focused on how brain-computer interfaces (BCI) can support the play and development of disabled children. Carina entered the MScOT program at the University of Alberta to continue her research and career interests in supporting disabled children’s play through Assistive Technology solutions.
Manar Aoude
Manar Aoude received a BSc in Psychology at the University of Alberta and was employed as a research assistant at the University of Alberta’s Assistive Technology lab. She has cerebral palsy herself and shares her disabled childhood experiences with the research team to inform the development of BCI technologies and strategies. Manar’s research interests include exploring disabled children’s play experiences and the development of resources to support the play and interviewing of children with significant physical and communication impairments.
John Andersen
Dr. John Andersen is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta and a Developmental Paediatrician at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital (GRH) and Stollery Children’s Hospital. He serves as the Facility Chief of Child Health at the GRH and Section Chief of Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics, Alberta Health Services. He is the medical lead at the Imagination Centre, a clinical research team based out of the GRH, that brings brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies into the lives of patients and families. He is passionate about advancing rehabilitation interventions to benefit patient, family, and provider outcomes and the mentorship of the next generation of innovative and highly-skilled clinicians and scientists.
Kim D. Adams
Dr. Kim Adams is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta. She received her BSc and MSc in Electrical Engineering, and after 20 years in clinical practice as a Rehabilitation Engineer, obtained her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Alberta. As the director of the Assistive Technology lab, her research initiatives include using assistive robots to facilitate disabled children’s play and education. Current directions of her research program include the development of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to control assistive robotics and other play and learning activities.