Opportunities of Interactive Textile-Based Design for Education Tools for Children with Various Spectrums of Alertness Sensitivities

Whilst social design can improve human livelihood and well-being, it offers designers challenges to tackle with traditional materials and approaches. For nearly ten years, social design projects at the Estonian Academy of Arts have touched upon the applications of textile knowledge and skills for the creation of teaching and therapeutic tools for children and adults with special needs. By collaborating with various care and support organizations in Tallinn, the projects capitalize on the traditional textile design students’ skill base, and at the same time encourage the student cohort each year to learn additional electronic textile properties, so that they can apply these consolidated skills and knowledge of textiles and electronics in a social context.

This chapter will take a recently completed social design project as an example to demonstrate the way in which traditional textile skills can be combined with electronic textile properties to solve specific problems designated by social care services. In spring 2017, the final-year textile design bachelor students received an assignment to design tools and playful interactive textile-based educational games for the Tallinn Children Hospital’s Mental Health Center’s multisensory room.

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Suggested Citation: Kuusk, K., & Nimkulrat, N. (2018). Opportunities of Interactive Textile-Based Design for Education Tools for Children with Various Spectrums of Alertness Sensitivities. In N. Nimkulrat, U. Ræbild, & A. Piper (eds.). Soft Landing [Cumulus Think Tank Publication Series] (pp. 101–111). Helsinki, Finland: Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.