Safety, Connection and Reflection: Designing with Therapists for Children with Serious Emotional Behaviour Issues

Abstract

Designing technologies to support mental health in children is a growing area of research. However less is known about how to design with therapists for children with serious emotional behaviour issues. We conducted a contextual enquiry at an organisation that provides therapy treatment for children of trauma backgrounds. A co-design with therapists of a reflective storytelling activity provided insight into how to integrate design research activities with therapy approaches. Our analysis produced a framework summarising the important elements of a facilitated reflective experience. The framework is intended to guide the design of technologies to support safety, connection, and reflection in scaffolding social emotional learning towards improved emotional behaviour for children. Future directions for applying the framework include: augmenting existing therapy activities with technology, technology to support children learning how to self-regulate their emotions outside the clinic, and technology to help parents in emotion coaching their child.