Kids With Autism Benefit From Interactive, Educational Robotics Program

ASK NAO (Autism Solution for Kids) was created by Aldebaran Robotics to customize NAO, the humanoid robot, in order to support teachers with in-class tasks and help children with autism reach new levels of greatness.

This initiative was developed after noticing that many children with Autism seem impulsively attracted to technology therefore allowing NAO to become the perfect bridge between technology and our human social world. To accomplish this Aldebaran Robotics is creating a multi-sided community made up of developers, therapists, researchers, teachers, parents, enthusiasts, and the Aldebaran team collaborating to help children at surpassing their limits!

We recently spoke with NAO Behavior Architect Alexandra Sugurel about the program.

What are some of the specific learning goals children with Autism must attain, that are difficult to achieve in a mainstream classroom?
Each child has Individual Educational Plan (IEP) goals, focusing on three major aspects: educational, social, and conversational. These goals greatly vary on an individual basis, the process of selecting them being long and involved due to the particular uniqueness of each child. Determining targets brings in all the immediate caregivers and family in the child’s environment, and must address key concepts such as: specificity, measurability, and realistic time structure. Although it may take a great effort to compile targeted education and social development goals, the student will greatly benefit and be more likely to attain progress from this approach.

What behavioral challenges do children with Autism regularly face?
Attempts to cope with difficulty in processing information, over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity to factors in the environment, can result in attention deficit and even inability to control physical gestures. For a child that is non-verbal, a small change in the routine or the frustration of not being able to communicate physical difficulties such as tiredness, hunger or sickness can lead to behavior outbursts. It is important to offer structure and stability, while pushing for life skills practice, in an efficient and balanced way that is unique to each child.

How do children with Autism learn best?
Each child is different and needs the tools that address their needs the best. Most learn through multi-modal approaches: combining visual, auditory and tactile paths. Structure and repetition support the learning of a skill, and also provide relief to some children by giving a sense of predictability. Positive reinforcements are essential at practicing a task by empowering the child and maintaining their interest and attention focus during the activity. In all classrooms, the teacher needs to provide direct interaction and invest the time and energy to find the most effective learning style for each child.

Therefore, with ASK NAO the teachers can access a user friendly interface and organize the applications in playlists to support their lesson plan. The applications can be customizable for the learning style of each child, and saved to play whenever the moment is right. Progress of each child is also stored to be viewed later, allowing the teacher to fully focus attention on the child at the moment of the lesson. NAO can also be set to repeat an action as many times as the child needs, without showing signs of tiredness or frustration. Throughout the interaction he provides small reinforcements such as cheers and feedback, while at the end of the lesson the child can enjoy an educative dance and song reward.

What are the applications for the robots that you have found are most effective for students with Autism?
Each application is targeted on teaching a certain life skill and was created through the collaboration of special education experts and developers. The interactive apps address higher and lower functioning tasks, encourage turn-taking and are easily customizable to fit the needs of each child. The applications range from learning emotions and teaching object labeling through card games, to increasing attention span, memorization and sustaining social conversations.

The songs and dances used as rewards target the reinforcement of body parts labeling, imitation skills, as well as practicing together as a group. The interactions are calming for the kids and offer them the ability to care for NAO like a classmate but also like a little buddy that will not judge them and will never get frustrated. If the child needs, they can repeat the same interaction as many times as desired, offering comfort as well as consistency to practice the skill.

How have children with Autism responded to the robots?
Most children respond very positively to NAO. It helps that he has a humanoid form, easing left-right abstraction concepts and adding an analogy to our human world. The simplified features reduce visual overstimulation and focus on eye contact. Some children have found it easier to first interact with NAO and then transition to a human figure which is much richer in visual information.

Each class interaction is a fun and engaging activity in which students practice tasks determined by the teacher to support their goals. At the end of the applications that require students’ direct input, kids dance together and do a little stretching exercise as part of their routine with NAO. Empathy is also present, some children even taking the interactions they practice with NAO outside the classroom and at home. For example, before snack time, everyone takes a turn and says goodbye to NAO by shaking hands, giving high-fives and even a big hug. The children started applying these social habits when they are ready to go home, voluntarily engaging in the same goodbye actions amongst each other. One little boy that routinely sings a song to NAO, even started singing it to his brother at home before going to sleep.

How have educators responded to the integration of robots into the classroom?
We want to simplify the day to day tasks of the teacher so that the full energy and attention can be focused on the children. NAO is a tool to be used by educators in their classrooms to help draw the children towards the lessons and keep them focused and engaged. Each teacher has their own way of implementing NAO in their classroom. Depending on children’s class level and individual need, their lessons are either presented as a group activity or one-to-one.

Teachers even merged several teaching tools to maximize efficiency. Some of our classes are using the smart-board to display the interface to let children vote and build their own lesson plan sequences: setting the goals, activities and rewards they want to do with NAO. This is a very empowering technique and you can see how involved and excited the kids are. Once they finish building their lesson plan, they are ready to interact with NAO, knowing the activities they will do, better managing turn-taking and respecting each other’s choices.

What moment has touched you most in your work with AskNAO?
I was lucky to work with our pioneering integration schools and their amazing teams, so I experienced in-class behaviors and children’s reactions to NAO. One experience that touched me the most was Lucas, a brilliant boy with the allure of a little scientist, who took a great interest in NAO. He was fascinated by the way the robot moved and by the humanoid shape. Although non-verbal at first, in time he started spelling words to request NAO visits in his classroom more often. During one interaction, the robot asked him if he would like to play again and he said one big “yes!” Everyone around was very surprised and smiles started pouring everywhere. It was a very emotional and breakthrough moment, reminding us how amazing working with these gifted children is. You get so much energy when you see that your work is welcomed and it can potentially have such a strong impact on somebody.