Development of a Cantonese-speaking smart companion doll, SmartLittle, for elderly with dementia: Users’ view and experience
Eric Tam, Alex Mak, Jeffrey Chan, Karina Li, Jessica Wong, Yongping Zheng
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AbstractBackground: Doll therapy is a non- pharmacological method that uses lifelike dolls to comfort people with dementia, reduce anxiety, and evoke positive emotions. A locally developed Cantonese-speaking smart companion doll, named as LittleSmart, shown to positively impact dementia-related behavioral and psychological symptoms, has been developed. This doll has been used in various elderly care settings to gather feedback from stakeholders for evaluation and further enhancements.
Method: Since 2022, SmartLittle has been trialed in over 150 elderly care units, serving over 380 persons with mild cognitive impairment and 600 with moderate to severe dementia for a period of 3 months. Workers received operational training before the program started, and feedback was collected through a questionnaire after completion.
Result: Among the participating units, 94% completed the trial period. 51 units gave written comments concerning 7 aspects of usage, including the speech speed and loudness; interactivity; battery supply and charging; ease of control; available contents and recordings for use; emotional interaction and overall appearance of the doll. Among the 83 units that have completed the feedback questionnaire after the trial programme, 84% of them will recommend the smart doll to other units for use.
Conclusion: The Cantonese-speaking smart doll provided an affordable way to alleviate the burden of caregivers in supporting dementia patients. With the input provided by stakeholders, the developer will continue to enhance the doll design to address the local needs. Overall, users agreed that the use of this smart doll can improve the quality of elderly care services.Keywords: Dementia, companion doll, smart doll, socially assistive robot, gerontechnology
Eric Tam, Alex Mak, Jeffrey Chan, Karina Li, Jessica Wong, Yongping Zheng (2026). Development of a Cantonese-speaking smart companion doll, SmartLittle, for elderly with dementia: Users’ view and experience. Gerontechnology, 25(1), 1-7
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2026.25.1.1254.4