i-Teddy. A Doll Therapy Prototype in Therapeutic Robotics

Doll therapy has been shown to have multiple benefits in people with dementia, including reducing psychological and behavioral symptoms, increasing motivation and initiative, improving communication skills and well-being, maintaining cognitive and psychomotor abilities, and promoting user autonomy and empowerment. Overall, this therapy can significantly improve the quality of life of people with dementia and help them maintain their connections with their environment. This work describes a prototype of a therapeutic doll with sensorization elements that allows us to propose a useful, low-cost, and highly versatile tool to address different pathologies without the use of drugs to carry out programs designed by doctors, nurses, and social workers. Associated with the soft toy, a mobile application was designed so that specialists could program the doll based on the personal characteristics of the users and generate reports.