Technologies Supporting Social Play in Neurodiverse Groups of Children

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Werner, K., Kender, K., Scheepmaker, L., & Frauenberger, C. (2024). Technologies Supporting Social Play in Neurodiverse Groups of Children. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, 218-231. https://doi.org/10.1145/3628516.3655791

Publication date: 14 Jun 2024 Added to AutiHub: 21 Oct 2026 Type: Other Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 4 (25.0%)
  1. Katharina Werner
  2. Kay Kender *
  3. Laura Scheepmaker
  4. Christopher Frauenberger

Abstract

This paper reports on the evaluation of digital play things that scaffold social play. We have engaged two neurodiverse groups of children in a participatory design process to explore meaningful technologies in their co-located play experiences. The resulting technologies are systems composed of multiple connected artefacts that aim to strike the balance between structure and ambiguity to allow children to interpret social play in their own way, while providing structures that offer a common frame for interaction. We report on the two systems, MusicPads and LightSpaces, and their comparative and participatory evaluation, in which we assessed the impact of these technologies on the playing experience of children, and collected the children’s own reflections. Our results suggest that technologies indeed can play an important supporting role when designed as boundary objects across disparate needs and ideas of play. Building on this, we discuss implications for design and evaluation.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 23 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
39
With a DOI
35
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
3
1 / 39 (2.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 39 (2.6%)
References with detected author names
38 / 39 (97.4%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
1
Without a stable identifier
3
References with raw author names still to review
1
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
125
From DOI or external metadata
125
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
1
36 / 125 (28.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 89 / 125 (71.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
1 / 125 (0.8%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 1 / 36 (2.8%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 98 (1.0%).
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