Effects of a Play-Based Intervention on Locomotor Skills and Strength Performance of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Emerging evidence indicates that around 80-100% of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have motor impairments in gross motor skills, strength, and endurance. In the current study, which is a multisite collaboration with the physical therapy programs at the University of Connecticut and the University of Delaware, we are assessing the effects of two types of movement-based interventions compared to a standard-of-care seated play control intervention on motor performance in children with ASD. This thesis will analyze data from one of the movement training groups, i.e., the play group, that involved children engaging in activities based on music, dance, and yoga. Training was provided two times per week for eight weeks, with each session lasting 1-1.5 hours. Outcome measures included the locomotor subtest of a standardized test of motor performance (the Test of Gross Motor Development, TGMD-2) that assessed performance of seven fundamental motor skills, as well as a custom-developed strength test that assessed the strength of major muscles in the arms, legs, and trunk. Both the TGMD-2 and strength test were conducted at pretest and posttest. Preliminary data from nine children in the group indicated improvements in terms of standard and percentile scores on the TGMD-2 with improvements noticed in all seven skills assessed. There were no improvements in the strength test from pretest to posttest. We provide preliminary evidence for the utility of play-based interventions in improving motor performance in children with ASD. Future research should replicate our results with larger sample sizes

Impacts of using a social robot to teach music to children with low-functioning autism

This article endeavors to present the impact of conducting robot-assisted music-based intervention sessions for children with low-functioning (LF) autism. To this end, a drum/xylophone playing robot is used to teach basic concepts of how to play the instruments to four participants with LF autism during nine educational sessions. The main findings of this study are compared to similar studies conducted with children with high-functioning autism. Our main findings indicated that the stereotyped behaviors of all the subjects decreased during the course of the program with an approximate large Cohen’s d effect size. Moreover, the children showed some improvement in imitation, joint attention, and social skills from the Pre-Test to Post-Test. In addition, regarding music education, we indicated that while the children could not pass a test on the music notes or reading music phrases items because of their cognitive deficits, they showed acceptable improvements (with a large Cohen’s d effect size) in the Stambak Rhythm Reproduction Test, which means that some rhythm learning occurred for the LF participants. In addition, we indicated that parenting stress levels decreased during the program. This study presents some potential possibilities of performing robot-assisted interventions for children with LF autism

Performance Practice and Compositional Structure in Relation to Recital Preparation

Master's Project (M.Mu.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017This paper examines the author's graduate percussion recital program; ?Corporel(1985) by Vinko Globokar (b. 1934), Child of Tree (1975) by John Cage (1912-1992) Rebonds b. (1989) by Iannis Xenakis (1992-2001) Ilijas (1996) by Nebojša Jovan Živković (b. 1962), Mourning Dove Sonnet (1983) by Christopher Deane (b. 1957) and e-home (2015/2017) by Elisabet Curbelo (b. 1984). The author offers an examination of performance practice and compositional structure as it relates to the author's performance of the material.Chapter One: ?Corporel (1985) -- Chapter Two: Child of Tree (1975) -- Chapter Three: Rebonds b. (1989) -- Chapter Four: Ilijas (1996) -- Chapter Five: Mourning Dove Sonnet (1983) -- Chapter Six: e-home (2015/2017) -- Work Cited

On the role of trust in child-robot interaction

In child-robot interaction, the element of trust towards the robot is critical. This is particularly important the first time the child meets the robot, as the trust gained during this interaction can play a decisive role in future interactions. We present an in-the-wild study where Polish kindergartners interacted with a Pepper robot. The videos of this study were analyzed for the issues of trust, anthropomorphization, and reaction to malfunction, with the assumption that the last two factors influence the children’s trust towards Pepper. Our results reveal children’s interest in the robot performing tasks specific for humans, highlight the importance of the conversation scenario and the need for an extended library of answers provided by the robot about its abilities or origin and show how children tend to provoke the robot

Towards an interactive framework for robot dancing applications

Estágio realizado no INESC-Porto e orientado pelo Prof. Doutor Fabien GouyonTese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores - Major Telecomunicações. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

Robot Learning Dual-Arm Manipulation Tasks by Trial-and-Error and Multiple Human Demonstrations

In robotics, there is a need of an interactive and expedite learning method as experience is expensive. In this research, we propose two different methods to make a humanoid robot learn manipulation tasks: Learning by trial-and-error, and Learning from demonstrations. Just like the way a child learns a new task assigned to him by trying all possible alternatives and further learning from his mistakes, the robot learns in the same manner in learning by trial-and error. We used Q-learning algorithm, in which the robot tries all the possible ways to do a task and creates a matrix that consists of Q-values based on the rewards it received for the actions performed. Using this method, the robot was made to learn dance moves based on a music track. Robot Learning from Demonstrations (RLfD) enable a human user to add new capabilities to a robot in an intuitive manner without explicitly reprogramming it. In this method, the robot learns skill from demonstrations performed by a human teacher. The robot extracts features from each demonstration called as key-points and learns a model of the demonstrated task or trajectory using Hidden Markov Model (HMM). The learned model is further used to produce a generalized trajectory. In the end, we discuss the differences between two developed systems and make conclusions based on the experiments performed

Designing multiplayer games to facilitate emergent social behaviours online

This paper discusses an exploratory case study of the design of games that facilitate spontaneous social interaction and group behaviours among distributed individuals, based largely on symbolic presence 'state' changes. We present the principles guiding the design of our game environment: presence as a symbolic phenomenon, the importance of good visualization and the potential for spontaneous self-organization among groups of people. Our game environment, comprising a family of multiplayer 'bumper-car' style games, is described, followed by a discussion of lessons learned from observing users of the environment. Finally, we reconsider and extend our design principles in light of our observations