Night Knights
Reminding children that their nighttime fear isn’t something they have to face alone.
Overview
Night Knights was a year-long thesis project aimed to empower children with a sense of control and companionship for their night time fears. They are playtime companions children embark on exciting adventures with by day, guardians that light up dark corners of their rooms at night.
Year
2019 - 2020
Age
2 year and up
Why?
Night time fear is something very common amongst children. About 36 million people fear the dark in various ranges just in the US. Most parents might try to brush off these worries as a phase and undermine the child’s fears, but to children aged between 1 - 4 who cannot properly distinguish fantasy from reality, the fear is as real as anything else.
Healthy & Safe Practise
Most children aren’t taught what to do when they are scared or worried. We as an older generation were not taught how to properly deal and communicated about such feelings. When we did, a lot of us were likely told that their fears were not real and to suppress our emotions.
Children’s imaginations are powerful and complex. They can bring both delight and fear.
Can we use their imagination which also fuels their nighttime fear as a tool to overcome it?
For children at the age where their imagination runs wild with many openings for the unknowns to turn into something scary, the blank state of their brain with no distractions and experience to preoccupy their mind, a shadow in a dark corner can easily be a scary monster.
Mission
Logical explanations such as telling them their fears are all in their head and monsters aren't real is not the correct way to comfort them.
Therefore, the goal was to harness and embrace their fantasies and imagination with the aim to create a playful and thoughtful solution that soothes their fears.
Validate their fears and don’t discount them. Play along with their stories and try to figure out a solution within their realm.
Many children are raised to believe in Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. So telling them monsters aren’t real doesn’t always work.
Experiments
I wanted to test a simple experiment that involved a drawing exercise. The idea was to see if using playful narrative and imagination can shift the perception of fears and dehorn what people perceive as scary. The main goal was to provide an opportunity to illustrate a silly version of what people are scared of.
Round 1
Before trying the drawing activity with children, I ran the first test with students from RISD. I asked them to think of something they were scared of, and draw them getting ready for bed.
Round 2
For the second run of the experiment, children and parents who were willing participants from the Providence Children’s Museum were introduced to a character named ‘Sammy the Monster’ who had trouble sleeping because of something hiding under his bed. I asked the participants to draw the thing they thought Sammy was afraid of going to a birthday party.
Takeaway
Through interviews with parents and the experiments, I learned that many children enjoy drawing. Drawing is a transparent and powerful way of self expression. I was able to learn that using imagination and narratives to create a solution to something scary was possible, and something I can utilize for my project.
Insights
Children like to tell their own stories by reflecting the world around them through various forms of play. Give them the freedom to express themselves freely with toys and objects that they are emotionally attached to. Also, let them know that they can also that night is also a time they can have fun, and it isn’t so scary.
Many children have transitional objects they develop strong emotional bonds with such as a stuffed animal or a blanket. This relationship between them and the object could be a good opportunity to empower them with more sense of control of their nighttime fears by having the switch the turns on the lights on the Night Knights attachable to their transitional objects.
Talking and sharing is the first step. Just getting the words out can be a big relief. Everyone has worries and fears. Being afraid of something is normal at any age. Acknowledging and accepting one’s fear and talking about them has a dramatic effect in getting over a fear.
Concept Development
I developed the toys with playful and likable character presences. Each character comes with a story about overcoming the fear of the dark.
Freedom of Pretend Play
With the modular parts allowing modification customization of characters, I also wanted to provide a diverse set of tools, objects and items the characters can hold. The child can give their favorite character a different gear everyday depending on what kind of adventure they want to enact on that day.
Customizable Toys
I wanted to give the freedom to add personal touch to the toys and create their own characters if they wished. The toys are modular and highly modifiable with each parts and items interchangeable.
Remote Switch & Transitional Objects
One of the goals was to utilize transitional objects, the objects children develop strong emotional bonds with by transferring symbolic meanings unto as a means to provide a sense of control and empowerment. I wanted to have the remote switches that turns the Night Knight’s LED lights on as an attachable object to their favorite stuffed animals or blankets.
By having the switch that provides the soothing light that dampens the darkness a part of their most precious object, the process of pressing the remote makes the connection between the child and their transitional object much more meaningful.
PROTOTYPE
I experimented with two nFR24L01 which are transceiver module that can send and receive data. I was able to create a prototype transmitter and receiver that communicated remotely using Arduino. With the correct codes, I was able to send signals by pushing a button on the transmitter to turn on the LED light connected to the receiver.
Render
Conclusion
Play is a valuable time for children to self-express and learn more about themselves while also allowing them to portray the world they perceive. They can use play as mediums to reflect new emotions and experiences. The goal of Night Knights was to allow children to enact in rich and diverse stories about confronting the worries and fears they encounter on a daily basis.
