The study examined foster caregivers' sensitive guidance of conversations about emotional themes in a sample of foster caregivers living in Family Group Homes. Thirty caregivers were observed with two out of the several children under their care: one that was nominated by the Family Group Home's social worker as the most challenging child in the Family Group Home, and one that was nominated as the least challenging child. Based on attachment theory that argues that mothers possess a central role in shaping the interaction with the child by adapting their caregiving to the child's individual characteristics (Bowlby, 1982), we argued that caregivers' sensitivity will reflect the differences between the caregivers and not the differences between the children. We therefore hypothesized that the caregivers would show similar levels of sensitive guidance regarding their children, irrespective of the level of difficulty the children presented. The results supported our hypotheses by showing that caregivers' sensitive guidance of the conversations was similar across the most and least challenging children. The results highlight the importance of the caregiver in shaping the interactions with their children regardless of the degree to which the child is challenging.
Venous Materials is a novel concept and approach of an interactive material utilizing fluidic channels. We present a design method for fluidic mechanisms that respond to deformation by mechanical inputs from the user, such as pressure and bending. We designed a set of primitive venous structures that act as embedded analog fluidic sensors, displaying flow and color change. In this paper, we consider the fluid as the medium to drive tangible information triggered by deformation, and at the same time, to function as a responsive display of that information. To provide users with a simple way to create and validate designs of fluidic structures, we built a software platform and design tool UI. This design tool allows users to quickly design the geometry, and simulate the flow with intended mechanical force dynamically. We present a range of applications that demonstrate how Venous Materials can be utilized to augment interactivity of everyday physical objects.
Figure 1: Design tool and UI for prototyping of interactive fluidic mechanisms. (a: example of a working prototype with folding input. b: The User Interface and design tool for modeling the fluidic mechanisms, implemented in grasshopper environment. c: The simulation of fluid flow and color according to input parameters in b.) In this hands-on studio we introduce a method of designing and prototyping fluidic mechanisms that utilize the flow as both deformation sensors and displays. A fabrication process and the featured materials will be provided to allow participants to design and prototype self-contained fluidic channels. These channels are designed to respond to mechanical inputs such as deformation and pressure with flow and color change. We will introduce a specialized software plugin for design and flow simulation that enables simple and rapid modelling with optimization of the fluidic mechanism. The goal of Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s).
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