A Musical Interactive Surface to Support the Multi-Sensory Stimulation of Children

Interactive surfaces are promising to support multisensory stimulation during early development of children and for therapy for children with autism, as they offer a casual and engaging experience in a multisensory environment. In this paper, we present preliminary results of two field deployment studies of the use of BendableSound, a fabric-based interactive surfaces that allows children to play music. The first study was conducted at a school-clinic specialized in the care of children with autism in north-western Mexico, and the second study was conducted at an early education center in San Diego, California. Our preliminary results indicate that BendableSound is successful when used in both contexts to support specific development areas. We discuss implications of the introduction of BendableSound and we illustrate future work.