Final Concept

This section describes the final concepts conceived for the two kits between the age ranges of 6-12 months, as well as the reasoning behind choosing certain toys over others

Weighted Average Decision Matrix

From the research, co-design sessions and ideation sessions, a plethora of toys had been ideated upon and suggested as potential suitors for the kit. However, with the vast amount of options, it became increasingly difficult to choose the right toys that would fit into each kit. Hence, it was decided to employ a weighted average decision matrix, which is a prioritization tool that evaluates a set of choices against a set of criteria that need to be taken into account [1]. Each criterion is given a specific weight factor between 1 and 5, and each choice(or, in this case, each toy) receives a score between 1 and 5 on how well it suits the criteria. Finally, the cumulative score of the toy is obtained by calculating the weighted sum (which is the total sum of all the criteria scores multiplied by the weight factor), which allows the toys to be ranked effectively.

The first step in this approach is developing a list of criteria with a weight factor for each criterion, which was based on desk research, co-design sessions and designer intuition. The list can be found below:

Final Decision Matrices

Following the criteria factors being defined with their successive weights, a list of promising toys for age ranges between 6-9 months and 9-12 months was compiled. For each age range, the toys were compiled into two separate lists and provided a score between 1 and 5 on their relative performance to the criteria above, and the final sum for each toy was obtained by calculating the weighted sum of each toy's score on each criterion.

Below is the weighted average decision matrix for 6-9 month old baby toys:

And the following is the final weighted average decision matrix for 9-12 month old toys:

Limitations & Final Toy Decisions

While the weighted average decision matrix is a useful tool for prioritization and selecting the most optimal choices, it undeniably has flaws. Firstly, the assigned weights to the criteria, as well as the scores provided, will contain a certain level of bias, which influences the toys chosen. Furthermore, not all relevant criteria were listed, only the key factors, and perhaps including less relevant factors may have influenced the final decision. Finally, there are some aspects of the toys, mainly concerning emotional connection, that simply cannot be quantified or categorized, hence solely relying on the decision matrices as the only tool for the final decision of toys would be unwise.

With this in mind, the final decision on the selected toys was obtained by combining both the results of the weighted average decision matrix alongside the intuition and knowledge of the designers of the team. The tabs below describe the final toy choices made for the two ages ranges targeted:

Surprise Eggs

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This toy consists of a set of breakable eggs that contain different shapes inside, allowing the baby to not only bang them together(which is something reported by the mother that the baby enjoys doing) and break them but also develop its motor skills when trying to match them together by matching the shapes accordingly, which develops the baby's fine motor skills and colour and shape recognition [2].

Tummy Time Mirror

This toy consists of a mirror with fluffy soft textures around the edges. The inclusion of the mirror was due to observation of the baby's pleasant interaction with the mirror during co-design sessions and reports from the mother, as well as research that supports the benefits of a mirror as it boosts sensory and cognitive development, and allows for self-recognition, a crucial step in developing social and emotional skills [3][4]. Furthermore, textures around the mirror allow for tactile play and development, enabling a multi-sensory experience for the baby

Stacking Tower

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This toy consists of a series of parts that the baby must stack into a tower appropriately by putting the parts on the peg. This toy is beneficial for developing fine motor, skills since picking up and putting objects in place trains the child’s hand muscles and muscle control, intentional grasp and release skills, and also trains the child to visualize the object and get information from the eyes on how to move the hands and the objects [5] [6]

Object permanence box

This toy consists of holes in which the baby puts balls through and sees it slide. Not only must the baby match the right ball size to the hole, but it also introduces the concept of understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be perceived (seen, heard, touched, smelled or sensed in any way) [7]. Furthermore, the concept of object permanence plays a significant role in the theory of cognitive development created by psychologist Jean Piaget. In the sensorimotor stage of development, a period from birth to about age two, Piaget suggested that children understand the world through their motor abilities such as touch, vision, taste, and movement [8]. Finally, the baby would have to take the ball and put it through the hole. For a baby, this is challenging as their hand-eye coordination. After the ball rolls out, they see the ball show up again, hence they begin to understand object permanence.

Tissue box

This toy consists of a wooden box containing a large variety of tissues with differing textures and colours. One of the primary benefits of this toy is its aid in a baby’s developmental journey. Babies are naturally curious, and pulling tissues out of the box gives them an early lesson in cause and effect. This activity also enhances their understanding of object permanence – the idea that objects continue to exist even when they're out of sight, a crucial cognitive milestone for infants.[9]

Furthermore, The varied textures and bright colours of the tissues stimulate babies' tactile and visual senses. This sensory play is vital for their sensory development, helping them to understand and process the world around them.

Finally, as babies reach and grasp the tissues, they develop their fine motor skills. The simple action of pulling out a tissue strengthens their hand-eye coordination and dexterity, laying the foundation for more complex skills like writing and self-feeding in the future [10].

Guiro

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This toy is a percussion instrument consisting of a series of wooden ridges and a long peg that can be stroked alongside the ridges to make a frog-like sound, and can be used in the framework of Montessori pedagogy, which was created by Maria Montessori, an Italian doctor and educator in 1907, and encourages the development of the baby and their autonomy through educational toys [11].

This toy will develop the baby's cognition of the senses by mobilizing the observation and attention captured by the child thanks to the sounds of the instrument when the guiro is struck with the peg. Furthermore, this toy will develop the baby's musical awakening through initiation into music, new sounds and a sense of rhythm [11].

Train Conductor

This toy will be the base component that would like all other carts with toys from the current and subsequent kits together and would be the primary facilitator of the adaptability of the kits, allowing the baby to effectively add and remove carts seamlessly and play with the carts individually, or as part of a larger toy train, enabling the baby to use the same toys in many ways, add new toys from new kits and ensure that the toy train stays developmentally appropriate and adapts to the baby's growing needs, and engaged for longer periods.

Furthermore, a key aspect of this toy is its wheels, which consist of a series of pincer grasp puzzles that are magnetically attached to the wheels. This allows the baby to develop pincer grasp skills, which is the ability to hold something between the thumb and the first finger. This skill usually develops in babies around 9 to 10 months old. The pincer grasp is an important fine-motor milestone [17].

Bead Track

This toy consists of several brightly-coloured beads that the baby can move and interact with around a series of circular and looping tracks. By moving the beads along the track, the toy promotes fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination [12], as well as shape recognition and sensory skills. Furthermore, the bead track has pastel colours, which allows the baby to develop knowledge of multiple colours and promotes visual sensory development.

Carrot Harvest Toy Cart

The carrot harvest toy cart is another cart of the connectable train. It consist of three differently sized carrots and a wooden knife (not sharp) that is connected with a magnet. The baby can take out the carrots, like you whould with harvesting and by using the knife they can cut the carrots in two halfs that are kept together with velcro. This way the baby can practice their motor skills and gain a little bit of strenght needed to cut the carrot it half. Because carrots are all differently sized it also works as a puzzle to put the right pieces together and put the carrots back in the right hole. The baby will practice their understanding of sizes and shapes while learnign the concept of cutting things in half.

Pin Art Toy

This is a sensory toy consisting of a set of pins that allows the baby to press on the pins and see a profile of their actions. This is a bright multicoloured toy that boosts colour recognition [13] and enhances sensory development. Finally, this toy can be used to make endless different designs, allowing the baby to be engaged for extended time periods.

Stackable Musical Cups

This toy is a series of stackable multi-coloured parts that can be not only made into a tower but also turned into a mini drum kit that plays different sounds for each different colour and size. This allows for multi-sensory development, and and targets multiple key developmental areas. Firstly, by stacking cups, the baby will work on improving its fine motor skills, as the baby uses its hands to place one cup on top of another with careful precision, allowing it to understand the concept of spatial reasoning [14]. Furthermore, the musical aspect of the cups enhances the functionality available, allows the toy to be used in several ways and enables the baby to develop its musical listening skills.

Pop-up button kit

This toy consists of a combination of a sensory switchboard and a series of pop-up pegs. The Sensory Switchboard includes three distinct switches that each create a unique real-world effect. When the baby pushes the green button, a green peg springs up, and when they flip the blue switch, a blue peg springs up. This shows the baby that each action has its distinct outcome—and how they can have an impact on their environment [15].

The switches vary in difficulty, allowing the baby to practise a variety of hand and finger actions. The first button allows the baby to isolate their index finger, a key step towards pointing. The second switch is a toggle that requires precise motor coordination, whilst the third and most advanced switch twists, necessitating a full-hand motion. Repeating these actions over and over leads to increased precision with time, boosting hand-eye coordination and cause-effect understanding.

Furthermore, the coloured pegs help develop colour and shape recognition [15] as well as hand-eye coordination, as the baby must understand and figure out how to put the pegs back into the same locations. Further development is also possible as the baby can match the pegs based on colour and peg size.

Image Rotation Cart

The image rotation kart is an additional cart for the train. On this cart, three blocks can be rotated. By rotating the blocks, different images appear. These images match in a set of three. The toys helps recognize different settings like day and night, but also how different animals look.

Optional Plush Toys

Even though, according to the participant, plush toys were not of interest to her baby, it was imperative to consider that this claim is not generally the case, as many babies at this age enjoy the benefits of plush toys. Furthermore, plush toys offer a plethora of benefits, including their ability to be a soothing presence, especially during sleep or separation anxiety, their textures and sounds, which stimulate a baby's senses, aiding development, and their ability to become early 'friends' of the baby, encouraging pretend play and nurturing behaviour [18] [19].

Taking all of these factors into account, it was decided that, while it would not be produced in the prototype, the general service would offer plush toys as an addition that mothers could select and include in kits they wanted. For the final concept of this idea, 3 plush toys were designed:

Final Concept

The final concept sketches for both kits can be found below

Kit 1
It is important to note that a minor change was conducted on the stackable tower for the prototype; notably, the simple hexagonal-shaped tower pieces were replaced with circular and square shapes to ensure that enhanced learning and engagement could be achieved as the baby would have to now discern the current pegs for each shape, and then stack them accordingly, allowing the baby to enhance its learning as it grew.

Original Kit Design

Final Kit Design

Kit 2

Final Kit Design

References

[1] V. Firak, “Weighted Decision Matrix: Your Tool Towards Pro-Level Prioritization,” airfocus.com, Feb. 11, 2019. https://airfocus.com/blog/weighted-decision-matrix-prioritization/

[2]“Tomy Verrassingseieren,” Thimble Toys. https://www.thimbletoys.com/en/merken/tomy/detail/4680526-tomy-verrassingseieren

[3] “Montessori Tummy Time Baby Mirror: Expert Review.” https://montessoritoys.info/toys/montessori-tummy-time-baby-mirror-review/

[4] T. Lovevery, “Why do babies love looking at mirrors?,” Lovevery, May 20, 2020. https://lovevery.com/community/blog/child-development/who-is-that-cutie-in-the-mirror/

‌[5] “The benefits of stacking toys,” BIBS. https://bibsworld.com/en-ca/blogs/guides/the-benefits-of-stacking-toys

‌[6] “Scheibenturm, groß,” GRIMM’S Spiel und Holz Design. https://www.grimms.eu/en/products/conical-tower

[7] “Amazon.com: Elite Montessori Object Permanence Box with Tray and Ball : Toys & Games,” www.amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/Montessori-Object-Permanence-Tray-Ball/dp/B007IS364E

‌[8] “Sensomonitor Stage”, Cortland.edu, 2019. https://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/PIAGET/sms.HTML

‌[9] “Montessori Tissue Box - houten speelgoed voor baby’s en peuters,” Little August. https://little-august.com/products/montessori-tissue-box

[10] “Understanding the Lovevery Tissue Box,” www.linkedin.com. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/understanding-lovevery-tissue-box-andr%C3%A9-gustave-ulc2c/

[11] “Guiro: Percussion instrument - Montessori toy,” Montessori Toys. https://montessori-toys.co.uk/musical-instruments/115-guiro.html

[12] “Bead Maze ‘Safari,’” small foot. https://www.small-foot.de/en/toys/motor-activities-und-learning/motor-activity-toys/bead-maze-safari

[13] “Amazon.com: 3D Pin Art Toy, Pin Art Board Pin Art Toy for Kids, Sensory Toys for Age 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10+ Years Old Kids Boys Girls, Toddler Toys Birthday Gifts Baby Girl Boy Gifts Fidget Toys(Multicolor) : Toys & Games,” www.amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/ENJSD-Imagination-Innovative-Creativity-Multicolor/dp/B07V66SVXV

[14] “How to Play With Baby Stacking Cups,” Toyventive. https://www.toyventive.com/blogs/play-learn-blog/stacking-cups-baby

[15] T. Lovevery, “Meet the Sensory Switchboard, brand new to The Thinker Play Kit for months 11 and 12,” Lovevery, Sep. 05, 2023. https://lovevery.com/community/blog/play/sensory-switchboard-thinker-play-kit/

[16] p-themes, “Pop-Up Toy,” Galt Toys UK. https://www.galttoys.com/products/pop-up-toy

[17] D. Brennan, “What to Know About Pincer Grasp,” WebMD, Oct. 25, 2021. https://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/what-to-know-pincer-grasp

Final Concept

Weighted Average Decision Matrix

Final Decision Matrices

Limitations & Final Toy Decisions

Optional Plush Toys

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Taking all of these factors into account, it was decided that, while it would not be produced in the prototype, the general service would offer plush toys as an addition that mothers could select and include in kits they wanted. For the final concept of this idea, 3 plush toys were designed:

Final Concept

Kit 2

References

2024 Module 7 Group 11