Children with autism and ADHD (attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder) always encounter difficulties in expressing emotions. In view of this, Chan Ho-sing, PolyU graduate of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, partnered with two friends to develop a playbook titled “My emotions diary” and a mobile app using augmented reality (AR) technology to improve children’s emotion literacy.
Targeted for children aged three to six, this playbook instills 15 types of emotion expressions represented by different animals (such as happy bird, nervous fawn, angry lion etc). Children can simply focus a mobile phone or a tablet computer on the animal pictures to view the emotions demonstrated by the animals and learn to manage different emotions through therapists’ recorded instructions in Cantonese.
The book will be further developed into a collection. The second book titled “Happy rainbow” will be published in end 2016 with the support of the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund. This book is written based on the principle of positive psychology and is catered for older children who have emotional problems.