This thesis explores the impact of technology-centered toy design on the quality of play, with a specific focus on those children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As technology becomes more deeply integrated into the lives of children, a trend has emerged in the toy industry of favoring technological designs and/or those with some aspect of behavior mimicry.1 These toys, while appearing to smile, wave, speak, laugh, and cry just like that of a human, are coded to produce behaviors in response to the commands and actions of the child. In doing so, the natural socialization and play processes are manipulated. Play allows the opportunity for children to navigate their bodies and social spaces, develop language and motor skills, and learn creative problem-solving techniques. Technological toys, even those without behavior mimicry and life-like simulations, have been harshly criticized for their “constrain[ment of] the possibilities for cognitive development, interpersonal learning, and the quality of relationships that can be formed”2. Many of the critiques of high-tech toys – their limitations on imaginative play, their predictability in behavior and lack of deviation from encoded responses, and their singular functionality – have been developed from a neurotypical mindset with a concern for those children who develop along or adjacent to a predicted schema. Neurodivergent children and disabled children often stray from the expected developmental stages, therefore engaging in different play styles and requiring different play tools and support. Autistic children generally tend to prefer repetitive play activity and struggle to engage in coordinated play with peers, qualities which technological toys also exhibit and, in some ways, encourage. It is critical to keep the behavioral patterns of the toys, and the learning they may or may not promote, in mind as 1 Home-Douglass, 2003. 2 Kritt, 2001. ii parents and educators attempt to meet the needs of their child with ASD. This thesis hopes to expand the understanding of these toys and encourage designers to approach toy design with a greater care for an equitable and inclusive user experience.