Motion-based technology to support motor skills screening in developing children: A scoping review

Background. Acquiring motor skills is fundamental for children's development since it is linked to cognitive development. However, access to early detection of motor development delays is limited. Aim. This review explores the use and potential of motion-based technology (MBT) as a complement to support and increase access to motor screening in developing children. Methods. Six databases were searched following the PRISMA guidelines to search, select, and assess relevant works where MBT recognised the execution of children's motor skills. Results. 164 studies were analysed to understand the type of MBT used, the motor skills detected, the purpose of using MBT and the age group targeted. Conclusions. There is a gap in the literature aiming to integrate MBT in motor skills development screening and assessment processes. Depth sensors are the prevailing technology offering the largest detection range for children from age 2. Nonetheless, the motor skills detected by MBT represent about half of the motor skills usually observed to screen and assess motor development. Overall, research in this field is underexplored. The use of multimodal approaches, combining various motion-based sensors, may support professionals in the health domain and increase access to early detection programmes.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA

Activity-promoting gaming systems in exercise and rehabilitation

Commercial activity-promoting gaming systems provide a potentially attractive means to facilitate exercise and rehabilitation. The Nintendo Wii, Sony EyeToy, Dance Dance Revolution, and Xbox Kinect are examples of gaming systems that use the movement of the player to control gameplay. Activity-promoting gaming systems can be used as a tool to increase activity levels in otherwise sedentary gamers and also be an effective tool to aid rehabilitation in clinical settings. Therefore, the aim of this current work is to review the growing area of activity-promoting gaming in the context of exercise, injury, and rehabilitation

Effects of Computerized Emotional Training on Children with High Functioning Autism

An evaluation study of a serious game and a system for the automatic emotion recognition designed for helping autistic children to learn to recognize and express emotions by means of their full-body movement is presented. Three-dimensional motion data of full-body movements are obtained from RGB-D sensors and used to recognize emotions by means of linear SVMs. Ten children diagnosed with High Functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome were involved in the evaluation phase, consisting of repeated sessions to play a specifically designed serious game. Results from the evaluation study show an increase of tasks accuracy from the beginning to the end of training sessions in the trained group. In particular, while the increase of recognition accuracy was concentrated in the first sessions of the game, the increase for expression accuracy is more gradual throughout all sessions. Moreover, the training seems to produce a transfer effect on facial expression recognition

Human-centred design methods : developing scenarios for robot assisted play informed by user panels and field trials

Original article can be found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/ Copyright ElsevierThis article describes the user-centred development of play scenarios for robot assisted play, as part of the multidisciplinary IROMEC1 project that develops a novel robotic toy for children with special needs. The project investigates how robotic toys can become social mediators, encouraging children with special needs to discover a range of play styles, from solitary to collaborative play (with peers, carers/teachers, parents, etc.). This article explains the developmental process of constructing relevant play scenarios for children with different special needs. Results are presented from consultation with panel of experts (therapists, teachers, parents) who advised on the play needs for the various target user groups and who helped investigate how robotic toys could be used as a play tool to assist in the children’s development. Examples from experimental investigations are provided which have informed the development of scenarios throughout the design process. We conclude by pointing out the potential benefit of this work to a variety of research projects and applications involving human–robot interactions.Peer reviewe

Socially Assistive Robot Enabled Home-Based Care for Supporting People with Autism

The growing number of people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an issue of concern in Australia and many countries. In order to improve the engagement, reciprocity, productivity and usefulness of people with ASD in a home-based environment, in this paper the authors report on a 9 month Australian home-based care trial of socially assistive robot (Lucy) to support two young adults with autism. This work demonstrates that by marrying personhood (of people with ASD) with human-like communication modalities of Lucy potentially positive outcomes can be achieved in terms of engagement, productivity and usefulness as well as reciprocity of the people with ASD. Lucy also provide respite to their carers (e.g., parents) in their day to day living

Identifying instructional practices employed by Massachusetts Special Olympics Hall of Fame coaches

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston UniversitySpecial Olympics athletes may experience unique learning needs not seen among many mainstream athletes. Consequently, research-based coaching practices recommended for coaches of mainstream teams may not be appropriate for Special Olympics coaches. With this in mind, the importance of establishing a research-based knowledge bank of coaching practices to use with athletes who have intellectual disabilities comes to light. Identified coaching practices can benefit coaches of Special Olympics teams, as well as coaches of mainstream teams who may work with athletes who have intellectual disabilities. This first-of-its-kind empirical research study sought to identify instructional practices demonstrated by Massachusetts Special Olympics Hall of Fame coaches (n = 8). Specifically, this study aimed to discover what instructional practices were most commonly used among the participant group; what these instructional practices looked like; and what instructional practices may have contributed to supporting a positive learning climate. A framework for instructional practices set by the National Council for Accreditation of Coach Education (NCACE) was used to assist with the identification of instructional behaviors employed by study participants. A second purpose of this study was to use the NCACE (2006) Domain Five Observation Instrument (DFOI), a competency-based observation tool developed for this study, to collect data on study participants' instructional practices. Each study participant was observed coaching a practice three times during their sport season. Using the DFOI, observed instructional behaviors were quantified via event recording procedures and described by recording descriptive field notes. To triangulate data collected on the DFOI, coaches were audio-recorded with a wireless lapel microphone during practice observations. Following each coach's third practice observation, audio-recorded interviews were conducted to gain further insight into demonstrated instructional practices. Participants were observed performing 2,157 instructional behaviors during 1,080 minutes of observation, averaging 1.99 behaviors per minute and 89.87 behaviors per practice. Based on data analysis, encouragement, positive correction, and tactical and technical cues were the three instructional practices most commonly employed by study participants, accounting for 68.33% of all recorded behaviors. Data also show that participants engaged athletes in sport-specific activities during 63.15% of the total observation time, and spent only 5.95% of the total observation time delivering instruction to their teams. While speculative, data suggest that participants' emphasis of initiative, choice, excellence, and interpersonal relationships may have contributed to the support of positive learning environments. Additionally, the DFOI proved to be a useful observation tool for collecting competency-based quantitative and qualitative data, and is recommended for use during future replications of the current study, as well as future assessments of sport coaches' instructional practices. Based on data collected in this study, 14 recommendations are presented for Special Olympics, community-based, and school-based coach education programs. These recommendations include: promoting the importance of weaving encouragement into coaching practices, using a feedback model to facilitate delivery of positive corrections, and prioritizing use of instructional tools using a "tools in hand, tools in the tool belt, and tools in the toolbox" model

Robots in education and care of children with developmental disabilities : a study on acceptance by experienced and future professionals

Research in the area of robotics has made available numerous possibilities for further innovation in the education of children, especially in the rehabilitation of those with learning difficulties and/or intellectual disabilities. Despite the scientific evidence, there is still a strong scepticism against the use of robots in the fields of education and care of people. Here we present a study on the acceptance of robots by experienced practitioners (specialized in the treatment of intellectual disabilities) and university students in psychology and education sciences (as future professionals). The aim is to examine the factors, through the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model, that may influence the decision to use a robot as an instrument in the practice. The overall results confirm the applicability of the model in the context of education and care of children, and suggest a positive attitude towards the use of the robot. The comparison highlights some scepticism among the practitioners, who perceive the robot as an expensive and limited tool, while students show a positive perception and a significantly higher willingness to use the robot. From this experience, we formulate the hypothesis that robots may be accepted if more integrated with standard rehabilitation protocols in a way that benefits can outweigh the costs