Teaming Up

This year Dr John Greaney led a codesign project with help from Philip Penny (Researcher), and Sophie Kathryn (Applied Psychology Graduate). Students from Animation, Art, Applied Psychology, and Graphic Design joined in teams to make the most of their different skills and abilities and got ready to collaborate with school children. This year we were delighted that many of our Erasmus students opted to join this module which is part of the Skills Elective coordinated by Lecturer Louise Glynn.

Weaving Well-Being

Weaving Well-Being, authored by Fiona Forman, is an Irish designed positive mental health programme designed to equip children with practical tools to foster resilience and positive relationships. Fiona Forman drew on 30 years teaching experience to translate psychology research into usable tools. The children had been studying the text in school and were ready to expand on the ideas with help from IADT students.

Codesign in Practice

The overall aim of the project was to include the children’s voice to create resources that were engaging. This meant working together to design scenarios and stories that the children could relate to and remember. In three visits, the teams brainstormed ideas, drew paper prototypes, sketched storyboards and scenarios, and finalised the design based on feedback.

“We used paper and pen to make it easy for children to contribute their ideas” John explained “these stage of prototyping helps them to not become fixated on one idea. This helps them to learn skills the college students are more familiar with, like creative thinking and idea development.”

Importantly, these types of skills have been highlighted as essential for the future by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Impact of the Collaboration

There was positive feedback on the project from different angles:

“This elective is a great lesson in communication, and an eye opener for those who might like to work with children in educational, social or healthcare settings.” Kassandra (Art student).

The children were positive about the experience: “This is a real treat for them and I think it is a part of the experience to go over to IADT and engage with older kids.. it shows them what college is.” (Fabian, parent).

Caro Condon (Teacher) spoke that the collaboration had been a welcome opportunity for the children to deepen their learning of these important elements of the curriculum that had been covered in class.

Final Showcase

Fiona Forman spoke that: “I had a wonderfully uplifting experience last week at the ‘Co-Designing with Children’ showcase in the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Thanks so much to John Greaney from the Psychology Department for leading the project and for the invitation! Themes from the programme include empathy, respect, conflict resolution, active listening and kindness, and I was blown away by the levels of creativity and innovation on display, including board games, comic strips and card games. The magic of the collaboration and the conversations it sparked really helped to deepen the children’s learning. I loved having the opportunity to chat with the students and the 5th class children afterwards – hearing their insights and ideas was both thought-provoking and inspiring. Sincere thanks again to everyone involved in the initiative, it was just incredible to see the results!”

Future Directions

We aim to continue this collaboration in the future with interested students offered the option as part of their professional placement, in the hope that the project resources and ideas can be shared more widely.