Verifying Sensors in Smart Toys Designed to Help Professionals in the Early Detection of Psychomotor Developmental Disorders ^†

Toys are key elements in the development of children. In fact, some of them are included in child development tests used by professionals to assess whether or not children are able to perform a specific task. However, traditional toys do not detail how they do it. In the present research, we have designed Smart Toys (including accelerometers, gyroscopes, LDRs) and defined a system architecture based on wireless communications between the toys and a data collector device. Besides, we are carrying out a developmental delay screening system (DDSS) to provide a data analysis of the Smart Toys. Our main objective is to determine the variables of movement that explain the level of psychomotor development of children in order to build an automatic system of assistance to decision making by professionals, starting from the activity of children playing with Smart Cubes.

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the performance of 65 toddlers (ages between 23 and 32 months) making a tower of cubes. The Smart Toy-based sensors recorded the activity of the children for further comparative analysis. In addition, four experts in child development assessed children’s performance. The results show that the Smart Toy was successful with separate distinct levels of performance.