Transitioning has been acknowledged as an important phase in a child's life. It is important for further development that this is a positive experience for the child as it can have a big impact on the child's future.

 

For most children the transitioning phase will be a positive experience but for some this phase will cause confusion and anxiety. Children who are more likely to have difficulties during this phase are: children with poor socio-emotional skills, low self-esteem, low self-confidence, children from more deprived backgrounds, with special educational need, who are the youngest or if English is not their native language.

 

A transitioning tool was design to be used during this phase for children who have difficulties coping with the immense changes. The tool exists out of two parts, the first part is a toy that will be carried around by the child and the second part is an accessory the parent will wear.

The accessory is more symbolic than functional. I can measure the heart beat of the parent and communicate this to the toy of the child. But even if the parent is not wearing the accessory the toy will still have a heart beat. When the child feels scared, lonely or misses his/her parents he can press the toy and the heartbeat will activated. This will calm down the child or make it feel more at ease.

This was a project done for the Multidisciplinary module during my MSc Medical Product Design. This was a group work were I was team leader.