Prepoznavanje in izražanje čustev: težave otrok z motnjo avtističnega spektra pri učenju tujega jezika in kako jih rešiti

Recognising emotions, facial expressions and tone of voice and body language, expressing and managing their own emotions, and understanding and responding to other people\u27s emotions are often difficult for children with autism spectrum disorder. Since the emotional codes of individuals with autism spectrum disorder are different, those people will possibly be awkward in expressing some throughout their lives. Although it might seem that children with autism spectrum disorder do not respond emotionally, the ability to understand their facial expressions could lead to an improvement in their social interaction difficulties. In addition, since autistic expressions might be unique to each child, recognising their emotions is important when delivering a personalised intervention to a child with autism spectrum disorder. In recent decades, researchers have become increasingly interested in the role of emotions in learning and teaching a foreign language beyond heavily investigated topics such as foreign language anxiety and motivation and attitudes towards the foreign language. In this paper, how emotions impact the motivation and success of children with autism spectrum disorder while they are learning a foreign language is presented. Challenges, opportunities and future research directions in this domain are given. (DIPF/Orig.

Fully robotic social environment for teaching and practicing affective interaction: Case of teaching emotion recognition skills to children with autism spectrum disorder, a pilot study

21st century brought along a considerable decrease in social interactions, due to the newly emerged lifestyle around the world, which became more noticeable recently of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, children with autism spectrum disorder have further complications regarding their social interactions with other humans. In this paper, a fully Robotic Social Environment (RSE), designed to simulate the needed social environment for children, especially those with autism is described. An RSE can be used to simulate many social situations, such as affective interpersonal interactions, in which observational learning can take place. In order to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed RSE, it has been tested on a group of children with autism, who had difficulties in emotion recognition, which in turn, can influence social interaction. An A-B-A single case study was designed to show how RSE can help children with autism recognize four basic facial expressions, i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear, through observing the social interactions of two robots speaking about these facial expressions. The results showed that the emotion recognition skills of the participating children were improved. Furthermore, the results showed that the children could maintain and generalize their emotion recognition skills after the intervention period. In conclusion, the study shows that the proposed RSE, along with other rehabilitation methods, can be effective in improving the emotion recognition skills of children with autism and preparing them to enter human social environments

Η χρήση κοινωνικών ρομπότ (Social Assistive Robot- SAR) για την ανάπτυξη δεξιοτήτων συμβολικού παιχνιδιού και μίμησης σε μαθητές με Διαταραχή Αυτιστικού Φάσματος (ΔΑΦ)

Αντικείμενο μελέτης της παρούσας έρευνας είναι η συσχέτιση που μπορεί να αναπτυχθεί ανάμεσα στο Συμβολικό Παιχνίδι, την Διαταραχή Αυτιστικού Φάσματος (ΔΑΦ) και τα Κοινωνικά Ρομπότ. Η ΔΑΦ είναι η πιο συνηθισμένη νευροαναπτυξιακή διαταραχή που παρατηρείται στις μέρες μας. Ανάμεσα στις περιοχές που παρατηρείται να έχουν διαταραχθεί είναι και η δεξιότητα του παιχνιδιού, το οποίο εμφανίζεται με διαφορετική ποιότητα και ιδιόρρυθμους τρόπους. Η αξία του παιχνιδιού στην ανάπτυξη του ατόμου είναι πολύτιμη. Το παιδί μέσα από αυτό θα αποκτήσει την εμπειρία του περιβάλλοντος και θα αναπτυχθεί κινητικά, κοινωνικά, συναισθηματικά και γνωστικά. Τα κοινωνικά ρομπότ αποτελούν ένα σύγχρονο μέσο, που μπορεί να αναδειχθεί σε σημαντικό εργαλείο, προσφέροντας νέες δυνατότητες στην εκπαιδευτική διαδικασία. Σκοπός της παρούσας έρευνας ήταν να διερευνήσει αν η χρήση ενός ανθρωποειδούς κοινωνικού ρομπότ (ΝΑΟ 6ης γενιάς, SoftBank Robotics) μπορεί να αναπτύξει ή να βελτιώσει τις δεξιότητες λειτουργικού παιχνιδιού και παιχνιδιού προσποίησης σε μαθητές με ΔΑΦ χαμηλής λειτουργικότητας. Για να απαντηθεί το ερευνητικό ερώτημα, σχεδιάστηκε μία ποιοτική έρευνα και παρατηρήθηκαν τέσσερις μεταβλητές, (α) η βλεμματική επαφή, (β) η προσοχή, (γ) η ικανότητα μίμησης, και (δ) το επίπεδο ενασχόλησης. Αναπτύχθηκε ένα διδακτικό σενάριο με στοχοθεσία SMART, βασισμένη στην θεματική ενότητα του συμβολικού παιχνιδιού του ΑΠΣ-ΔΕΠΠΣ για παιδιά με Αυτισμό. Συμμετείχαν πέντε μαθητές (2 κορίτσια και 3 αγόρια) ηλικίας 7-10 ετών του Ειδικού Δημοτικού Σχολείου για Παιδιά με Αυτισμό του Πειραιά, οι οποίοι κλήθηκαν να αλληλεπιδράσουν με το NAO στο πλαίσιο εκπαιδευτικών παρεμβάσεων. Σχεδιάστηκαν έξι (6) δραστηριότητες και αναπτύχθηκαν ανάλογες εφαρμογές με τη βοήθεια του λογισμικού Choregraphe (εκδ. 2.8.6.23). Αφού έγινε η κατάλληλη προετοιμασία των μαθητών πραγματοποιήθηκαν τρεις (3) συναντήσεις του NAO με τους μαθητές. Πριν και μετά από τις παρεμβάσεις έγινε παρατήρηση και αξιολόγηση της δεξιότητα του παιχνιδιού των μαθητών. Από την έρευνα προκύπτει ότι κατά τη διάρκεια των παρεμβάσεων και οι πέντε μαθητές πραγματοποίησαν αυθόρμητη βλεμματική επαφή με το NAO, παρακολούθησαν τη δράση του, ενεπλάκησαν σε λειτουργικό παιχνίδι μαζί του και μιμήθηκαν κάποιες συμπεριφορές. Η σωματική καθοδήγηση και η παρότρυνση ήταν απαραίτητες για την ενασχόληση. Μετά την ολοκλήρωση των παρεμβάσεων οι μαθητές εμφάνισαν παιχνίδι προσποίησης. Αναφορικά με τις δραστηριότητες παρατηρήθηκε ότι, όσες περιείχαν στοιχεία διάδρασης, οδήγησαν σε αύξηση του επιπέδου ενασχόλησης, ενώ όσες συνδύαζαν ήχο με κίνηση, ενίσχυσαν τη βλεμματική επαφή και τη προσοχή. Τέλος, η συχνότητα μίμησης αποδείχθηκε να έχει άμεση σχέση με την εξοικείωση των μαθητών με το θέμα της δραστηριότητας.The present study examined the correlation that can be developed among the Symbolic Play, the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the Social Robots. Nowadays, ASD is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder. Children with ASD experience deficits in social interaction that includes play skills, appearing in unusual quality and quirkiness. Playing is a key factor in children’s development. When children play, they experience “real-life” and develop physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively. Social robots form a modern resource that can become an important tool, offering new possibilities in the educational process. The present study investigates whether the use of a humanoid social robot (NAO, 6 th generation, SoftBank Robotics) can develop or improve functional play and pretending play skills in low functional students with ASD. To answer the research question, a qualitative research has been accomplished in which four variables were studied: (a) eye contact, (b) attention, (c) imitation, and (d) engagement. A scripted lesson plan was developed with SMART goals based on ASD student’s Curriculum Program’s theme of symbolic play. Five students (2 girls and 3 boys, aged 7-10 years) of the Special Primary School for Children with Autism of Piraeus, were requested to interact with NAO. Six activities were designed, and similar applications were developed on the Choregraphe software platform (ver. 2.8.6.23). After the proper preparation of the students, each one of them individually met with NAO for three sessions. Before and after the interventions, the students' playing skills were observed and evaluated. The results show that during the interventions, all five students made spontaneous eye contact with the NAO. Moreover, NAO attracted children’s attention. Children got involved in a functional play and imitated some behaviors presented by NAO. Physical guidance and encouragement were essential for the engagement. After the completion of the interventions, the students showed pretend play. Activities that contained interaction, enhanced the engagement between students and NAO. Activities that combined sound and movement, enhanced eye contact and attention. Finally, it seems that the frequency of imitation is directly related to the students' familiarity with the subject of the activity

Recent Developments in Smart Healthcare

Medicine is undergoing a sector-wide transformation thanks to the advances in computing and networking technologies. Healthcare is changing from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive and personalized, from disease focused to well-being centered. In essence, the healthcare systems, as well as fundamental medicine research, are becoming smarter. We anticipate significant improvements in areas ranging from molecular genomics and proteomics to decision support for healthcare professionals through big data analytics, to support behavior changes through technology-enabled self-management, and social and motivational support. Furthermore, with smart technologies, healthcare delivery could also be made more efficient, higher quality, and lower cost. In this special issue, we received a total 45 submissions and accepted 19 outstanding papers that roughly span across several interesting topics on smart healthcare, including public health, health information technology (Health IT), and smart medicine