Hi group members,
There is an interesting ongoing collaboration between Dr. Dan Popa at the University of Texas at Arlington, the Dallas Autism Treatment Centre, and Texas Instruments. It involves a robot named Zeno built by David Hanson, a former Disney Imagineer.
Because young children with autism lack social interaction and speech, it is difficult to diagnosis them quickly. It has been found that robots can interact with children through body movements, facial expressions, and other nonverbal communication. That, in turn can speed up the early diagnosis and treatment of autism.
Zeno's features look slightly human, but are not human. Communication with a non-human face may be less scary for the child with autism. Children who have never spoken directly to an adult have spoken to robots.
Additional research with robots is being done with children that have Down syndrome and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Have any members had experience of any kind with robots?
For more information on this topic, go to http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/01/how-robots-helping-children-with-autism/ .
Rochelle