With the growing availability of mobile devices, individuals may be increasingly exploring the expanding world of mobile applications, games, and social networks. For example, tablet computers may be used to engage children, with and without disabilities, in learning activities through an attractive and easy to use interface and design corresponding to such tablet computers.
Tablet computers may now be equipped with a variety of assets including intuitive user interfaces such as touchscreen, wireless connectivity via multiple different protocols such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, image capture capabilities, position sensing and/or location determination capabilities. A variety of applications have been introduced that capitalize on the widespread acceptance of tablet computers, which may, in part, be due to the general affordability. For example, some applications may be operable to offer assistance to individuals with speech difficulties by allowing them to create verbal words and/or phrases by pressing a series of images using a tablet device. Similarly some applications may be operable to combine an interactive drawing application with a robot or other device that may provide feedback based on a user's input sequence. Accessible messages may provide assistive text typing by highlighting keyboard elements as a user types by predicting the next sequence of letters or characters.
Unfortunately, such touch-based tools may be developed assuming that the user possesses fine motor skills and thus is capable of touching small specific regions with an appropriate level of intensity and timing. However, the assumption of fine motor skills may be unwarranted in the context of individuals having limited upper body motor control, including for example, in children with cerebral palsy (CP). For example, children with CP may sustain dysfunctions in upper extremity (UE) activities, such as reaching, grasping and manipulation. Current therapeutic interventions for UE control in children have emphasized repeated practice of functional activities in various contexts with sufficient feedback. However children with CP may have difficulty in accessing devices requiring fine motor control such as, for example, a common pinch and swipe gesture operations that may be used to interface with a tablet computer.