Research
We employed an independent research company, fundamentally children.
They tested the Yako bear in-home with parents and child carers. Testers were allowed to keep the bears in return for their feedback. The feedback looked at the following key objectives:
Additional questions:
What age does the product suit? (we have suggested a core age of 7-8 years, but would like to explore whether it would suit older or younger children)
What messages do children write to their Yako?
Testing
Seven to 11 year olds engaged with Yako and used him to communicate effectively.
The parents of seven to 11 year olds reported that they were sharing worries and were open to communicating using Yako. The 10 to 11 year-olds in particular were able to identify how their emotions (scared, nervous) linked to situations (e.g. exams, going to the dentist). The parent of the eleven year-old commented that she is young for her age, so it is likely that Yako would not appeal to all eleven year-olds.
We therefore suggest a core target age of six to 10 years-old.
Children used the opportunity to raise concerns and parents liked the way this opened communication up:
“[He] had wrote a long note about how he was scared about getting braces and didn’t want them. This was good as he hadn’t admitted this to me before and it was lovely to see that he was able to put his worries into the bear.”
“I think this is very useful even though we communicate fairly well my son is being diagnosed as having ADHD at the moment and doesn’t always express everything to me all the time”
Some children expected to be communicating with a parent, while others assumed it was Yako replying.
Other similar products on the market use the ‘Santa clause effect’, in which parents remove notes or reply out of sight of the child, pretending to be a character (e.g. delivering Christmas presents fro Santa). Children then believe that the fantasy character has visited.
This may be a nice approach for younger children who still believe in magic. However, we found that Yako worked well with either method, so this could be presented as an option for parents to choose how they explain Yako. It would still help children communicate their emotions, but there would be less emphasis on communicating with their parent(s).
Children also found Yako appealing, and liked being able to share their feelings:
“Yako is so cuddly and I can tell him anything.”
“It’s really fun to play with a cuddle.”
