In special needs families, family dynamics are slightly different from the dynamics in other families. A child with special health care or educational needs requires a lot of attention and special care treatment from all family members. The parents‘ attention is mainly shifted to the care needs of the brother or sister and the siblings are mostly on their own (Okma, Naafs, Vergeer, & Berns, 2014). In Germany, 6.1 % of all children between 10 and 18 years old are officially caring for one of their family members. This means that in every school class at least 1 to 2 pupils are affected (Bühring, 2018).
Literature points to a wide range of positive as well as negative influences on the
emotional well-being of these siblings taking over care responsibilities at home, namely anxiety, depression, behavioral and social issues, but also strengths of character, such as empathy and kindness (Giallo et al., 2014, Martinez et. al, 2022, Milevsky & Singer, 2022).

This project focused on the personal experiences of siblings at a young age (6-12 years) growing up alongside a child with special needs. By conducting literature research, context mapping according to Sanders & Stappers (2012) with children, and
supplementary interviews with parents the following underlying core values of siblings have been identified: 1. Feeling understood, 2. The need for adult attention and feeling cared for, 3. Just being themselves. Briefly, growing up with a special needs sibling comes along with the challenge of truly feeling and acting like a child.
These insights resulted in the design vision and goal for Ontzorghuis, a Dutch organization offering workshops, retreats and reflective tools for special needs families: Designing for playful and engaging experiences to support siblings (age 6 -12) to assume their role as a child by empowering and facilitating the sibling through interpersonal connections. Through a research-through-design approach (Stappers & Giaccardi, 2017) the essential interactions of playfully sharing secrets in the form of affirmations and personal wishes with each other, were identified. The final design proposal resulted in the storytelling tool “Robin” to create a special bond between siblings and their parents. The playful tool enables children and their parents to create secret and surprising stories together that may involve personal needs or dreams of the child covered in the personality of Robin. The storylines are built upon research insights and the final story aims to serve as a conversation starter to understand the child’s perception and wellbeing of the current situation.
A limitation of this project is that within the scope of this master thesis the final design proposal could not be evaluated with siblings in order to try out the interactions, nor the intended context, the sibling’s home. Therefore, it is recommended to further evaluate the different parts of the design proposal in collaboration with siblings, their parents and sibling experts to prove the effectiveness in diverse contexts in order to create space to feel like a child.

This graduation project was in cooperation with Ontzorghuis, a Dutch charity that is focused on supporting the parents of children with special needs (CSN). It is crucial that CSN parents receive extra support, especially in the early stages when the child's diagnosis is still unclear. Parents of a CSN have extra responsibilities and care, which can easily overwhelm them and lead to burnout. In fact, 78% of CSN parents started working less after getting their child, and 60% ended up overworked and burned out (Okma, Naads, Vergeer & Berns, 2014) . Their extra care can also lead to an escalation: if the parents' well being is declined too much, the CSN has to be placed out of home. However, currently the Dutch care system is focused and structured around the child with special needs, not on the parents. Parents of special needs children are currently not seen as informal carers, giving them no right to extra support (Ross, 2020). This leaves the parents in a vulnerable position. The goal of this project is to use systemic design to develop a strategy for Ontzorghuis, to have a long-term impact on these parents.

After researching the context, several key actors in the system around CSN parents were identified: the national government, municipal councils, the care domain, charities and network. Ontzorghuis is part of the charity actor. For each of the actors, one or more interviews were conducted with someone working in this domain, 12 in total. The insights of the interviews were combined with those from literature research, to analyse the interactions between the actors. This forms the basis of the system map. The map consists of 25 points, representing the challenges actors have to face together. This system map was then used to investigate the possibilities for systemic impact for CSN parents. Leverage points were identified, and used to map out future interventions. The insights were converted into an actionable strategy for Ontzorghuis.

The first step of the strategy is to make CSN parents visible within society. The graduation design therefore had the goal of helping actors reflect on their role in the system around CSN parents. Storytelling was chosen as the mechanism to convey the system, as "storytelling allows for thorough understanding of complex systems with limited time investment and without requiring expertise on systems design" (Talgorn & Hendriks, 2021, p. 50). Using storytelling also allowed room for the empathy needed for this vulnerable but inspiring target group. The end result is a children's book for any actors of the system, using a metaphor to tell the story of a CSN parent interacting with the system, and inviting readers to reflect.

“It’s a given that parenting is hard work. But when you’re raising a child with special needs, the level of care and stress is not just higher, it shifts the foundations of families and adds unimaginable complexities for everyone involved.” (Pinhorn, 2018, www.gottman.com)This project is developed in collaboration with The Ontzorghuis, a Dutch organisation founded to support parents of children with special needs. This assignment aims to enhance the capabilities of the CSN parents’ community to fulfill their basic psychological needs, which are essential for psychological health and well-being (Decy & Ryan, 2008).Inspired by the Capability approach (Alkire & Deneulin, 2009; Sen, 2004; Nussbaum, 2001) a qualitative study was conducted to evaluate the common capabilities that characterise the CSN parents’ community, as well as the individual practices or paths of success that parents come up with to deal with their challenging circumstances. The study consisted of initial desk research based on the social media expression of CSN parents and remote field research that involved 6 CSN parents who participated in a series of generative research exercises and interviews. An innovative approach for remote user research is presented. It is based on metaphorical visualization exercises that are able to engage a sensitive community with little time available into a conversation about intimate and relevant topics that are often difficult to share.The findings collected from this research narrowed down the scope of this project into the topic of future thinking. Many parents experience fear and anxiety when facing the big unknown that supposes having a life-long dependent child. Their capability to think about the future appears as a decisive factor in their wellbeing. The proposed solution, Future Journeys tool, integrates the concept of Resourcefulness (Giaccardi & Nicenboim, 2018) into the context of future thinking. While the capabilities of this community are significantly reduced, the opposite may happen with their resourcefulness (ability to creatively adapt to challenges for which no commonly agreed solution was available). Future Journeys leverages the creative ways of approaching future thinking of some individuals to expand the perspective of relatable others who, although in similar circumstances, experience a negative relationship with the unknown future. The proposed tool is presented with the shape of a mobile phone application that aims to provide CSN parents with a common language to reflect and share their perspectives about future thinking. The solution promotes self-reflection through an exercise of guided metaphorical thinking and completes the experience with social interactions where the users share their perspectives to inspire others. This solution enhances the basic psychological needs of CSN parents. The impact of the tool on its users’ wellbeing was evaluated taking into account Self Determination Theory’s three fundamental needs. Furthermore, the results provided valuable insight into the potential of the tool to expand the capabilities of the CSN parents’ community and helped to draw further recommendations for the future development of the tool.

Today more deaths are linked to obesity and weight gain than famine and malnutrition, especially with children a concerning increase in global childhood obesity has developed. Currently, many programs have been implemented in the Netherlands to address childhood obesity, however, few go beyond awareness and involve a physical experience. To address this gap this project researched and designed a product experience to support families to develop a healthier relationship with food. The primary aim of the research was to gain a better understanding of how food, play, and parent-child interactions influence eating habits and behaviours in families, especially with regard to toddlers and younger children. Through this research a design was created for the year 2025 and tested with families.

In the first phases of this project, research was conducted through a literature review and qualitative studies with domain experts as well as parents with children between the ages of 1 and 4. These research studies focused on gaining a deeper understanding of specific values, beliefs, and parental experiences within a family in order to better understand the conflicts that exist in the home food context. The insights gained through these studies were gathered and categorized based on how they contribute to what family interactions around food moments will look like in the year 2025. For example, one insight is that parents struggle to set clear boundaries; they often sacrifice their own well-being in order to be more engaged in their children’s lives. Most families are child-centred, where the children hold priority over their parent’s time, energy, and attention. When reviewing these categories, the need for flexibility was a surprising yet important concept.

Once a clear formulation of the home food context was established a series of design interventions were developed and tested. Interventions were tested by myself as well as other families in order to identify and establish which designs positively influence our relationship with food. The design interventions were inspired by the themes of rebellious play, mindful eating, and the promotion of playful exploration, guided independence, trusted relationships, and family harmony.

After testing of prototypes, a final concept was developed and tested by families with children. The final concept called Happi Hanily is a family food play experience that facilitates the reflection of family food values, supports mindful eating, and creates an atmosphere that fosters harmony among family members—all of which promote the development of healthy eating behaviour for the family over time. The design has three elements, the digital Food Finder which is an online recipe platform, the Spill Supporters which are customized napkins, and the Wackey Wavey Wheel of food which is the central serving and eating dish.

The final concept was tested with three families using the qualitative methods of observation, questionnaires, and interviews. During testing it was found that the design facilitated a harmonious dinner experience with the qualities of playful exploration, guided independence, and trusted relationships being enhanced. Due to the timeframe of the project it was difficult to measure whether families were able to develop a healthier relationship with food. However, based on parental feedback it appears that children are more engaged while eating with the Happi Hanily and that this product is something they would adopt as a ritual. The design facilitates a more relaxed and stress-free dining experience which is important when introducing new food to children and when helping them to develop a healthier relationship with food.