Co-construction of child personas in the development of a digital communication support system for increased participation in pediatric habilitation

Introduction: Digital communication support systems have great potential to facilitate the provision of child-centered care where children and young people are allowed and enabled to participate in planning and decision-making in their own habilitation. The aim of this study was to co-construct child personas together with children and young adults from pediatric habilitation for the design of a digital communication support system. Patients and methods: The child, parent and practitioner perspectives on goals, needs and behaviours in relation to participation in pediatric habilitation were characterized based on interviews with 20 children (6-17 years old) and 8 young people (18-30 years old) with intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities or autism spectrum disorders, 17 parents (aged 31-62 years) and 10 practitioners. Data were interpreted and explained together with children from the interviews (n=14) in two explorative design workshops and a validation workshop. Results: We present findings and insights on how to co-construct child personas in the context of pediatric habilitation. The work resulted in three personas with different priorities that model the behaviors, attitudes, and goals of three user archetypes tailored for developing digital communication support systems in this particular use context. Conclusion: By applying our progressive steps of data collection and analysis, we arrive at authentic child-personas that are now used to design and develop a digital communication support system for the particular goals, needs and behaviors of children in pediatric habilitation.Oral presentation 37