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

Building a game scenario to encourage children with autism to recognize and label emotions using a humanoid robot

This paper presents an exploratory study in which children with autism interact with ZECA (Zeno Engaging Children with Autism). ZECA is a humanoid robot with a face covered with a material allowing the display of varied facial expressions. The study investigates a novel scenario for robot-assisted play, to help promoting labelling of emotions by children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The study was performed during three sessions with two boys diagnosed with ASD. The results obtained from the analysis of the children's behaviours while interacting with ZECA helped us improve several aspects of our game scenario such as the technical specificities of the game and its dynamics, and the experimental setup. The software produced for this study allows the robot to autonomously identify the answers of the child during the session. This automatic identification helped the fluidity of the game and freed the experimenter to participate in triadic interactions with the child. The evaluation of the game scenario that will be used in a future study was the main goal of this pilot study, rather than to quantify and evaluate the performance of the children. Overall, this exploratory study in teaching children about labelling emotions using a humanoid robot embedded in a game scenario demonstrated the possible positive outcomes this child-robot interaction can produce and highlighted the issues regarding data collection and their analysis that will inform future studies.Fundação para a Ciencia e Tecnologia in the scope of the project: PEst-OE/EEI/UI0319/2014. The authors are grateful to the Portuguese Foundation for the R&D project RIPD/ADA/109407/2009 and SFRH/BD/71600/2010 scholarshipinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A pilot study using imitation and storytelling scenarios as activities for labelling emotions by children with autism using a humanoid robot

In this paper we present a child-robot interaction pilot study, focusing on recognizing and labelling emotions displayed by a humanoid robot. ZECA (Zeno Engaging Children with Autism) has a special skin covering its face which allows the display of facial expressions representing five emotions: joy, sadness, fear, anger, and surprise. These facial expressions were used in two different game scenarios, involving imitation and storytelling activities. The goal of these scenarios is to help the child acquire knowledge about different emotions and to improve their skill in recognizing them. The results show that these scenarios are appropriate for the goal established for this study, and positive behaviours concerning non-verbal communication were observed. This exploratory study demonstrated the possible positive outcomes this child-robot interaction can produce and highlighted the issues regarding data collection and their analysis that will inform future studies.This work has been supported by FCT Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia in the scope of the project: PEst-OE/EEI/UI0319/2014. The authors are grateful to the Portuguese Foundation (FCT) for the R&D project RIPD/ADA/109407/2009 and SFRH/BD/71600/2010 scholarship.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Socio-digital experiences

The experiences emerging from interacting with digital technology need to be understood, designed and engineered. This is quintessential for ensuring that related systems and services have a purpose and value for their users, helping them achieve their aspirations and desires. Rooted in this human-experience centered perspective, we explore ambient intelligence technologies, where computation and communication are embedded in our physical and social environment, adapting to users and their context. The overarching motivation is to create novel socio-digital experiences that address societal needs, like staying connected with dear ones, children’s outdoor play, achieving desirable behavior change, supporting independent living, and rehabilitation. Looking to the future, two grand challenges concern us. First is to design technologies that people can shape to meet idiosyncratic and dynamically emerging requirements, known as meta-design. Second is endowing ambient intelligence technologies with aspects of social intelligence

Inclusión, discapacidad y educación: Enfoque práctico desde las Tecnologías Emergentes

El CIEE 2017 comparte posibilidades tecnológicas en un marco de inclusión social, educativa, cultural, laboral; el abordaje desde el servicio y por las personas que más requieren está marcado no por la energía potencial que la ciencia proyecta a través de sus artefactos tecnológicos, sino por la energía cinética que se obtiene cuando movilizamos a grandes masas de personas buscando un fin común llamado equidad. El CIEE espera una cobertura amplia en cuanto número de científicos, profesores universitarios, estudiantes; pero también de personas con discapacidad y otras con necesidades específicas de apoyo educativo. La ciencia de la inclusión con tecnologías se construye en común; es congruente la esencia inclusiva, expresada en la participación de todos, con la forma llamada tecnología. En esta línea, el presente libro recoge más de 50 contribuciones de diversos autores de Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia y Perú. Estos se organizan en tres partes: artículos científicos, pósters y resúmenes de charlas magistrales. Los artículos científicos se organizan en seis mesas temáticas que agrupan el trabajo de los autores considerando su contenido y objetivos: accesibilidad y uso, desarrollo de software educativo y entornos virtuales de aprendizaje; estimulación multisensorial; inclusión de las TIC en la educación especial; los nuevos modelos de intermediación con TIC y metodología de aprendizaje apoyado con las TIC

WikiTherapist

Motivation – This paper describes a platform that can be used by therapists to easily create treatment programs for ASD patients based on robotic systems. Research approach – Through extensive collaboration with treatment clinics, the needs and requirements of therapists are analysed and implemented in several design stages. Design – The basis of the platform is a combination of the humanoid mobile robot NAO (Figure 1) with a visual programming environment TiViPE. The end-user qualities of TiViPE extended with learning by imitation programming techniques allows therapists to create therapy programs without the need for extensive programming skills. Take away message – The successful introduction of autistic treatment programs involving robotics requires the ability of therapists to create and adapt the therapy to patient specific needs