It is not easy to gain access into the world of the child with Autism. According to the experts, a child with autism is more likely to respond to a non human entity. As such Robot-therapy can help autistic children to open up. Interbots, Inc., a high-tech spin-off company associated with the Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center and the Autism Center of Pittsburgh have teamed up to offer groundbreaking, robot-supported therapy for the children with autism. Called, “Character Therapy,” this collaborative program will leverage the skills of Interbot robot “Popchilla” in communicating with Autistic children.
Under the program, the robot will test the ability of children with autism with limited or no verbal skills. The program is funded by Spark. Spark is an initiative of The Sprout (News - Alert) Fund catalyzing projects and programs that engage children ages birth to eight through the creative use of technology and media.
Interbots informed that the Popchilla will be used in the first phase of the program with a trained therapist. Programmers and developers at Interbots have created an iPad application that will allow the therapist to direct sessions, which will eventually be transitioned to allow the child to control the robot through an iPad application to identify emotions.“By using Popchilla as an intermediary, we hope to increase the understanding of the child's internal feelings, thus reducing behavioral frustrations. If they are able to identify that they are 'angry' and what 'angry' means, it can significantly help them understand what they are feeling, reducing behavioral ramifications,” Cindy Waeltermann, Founder and Director of the Autism Centers of Pittsburgh, said.
Interbot has always emphasized on simplicity of the control and operation of their robots. The best part of this robot-supported program is: the users won’t need to have technical expertise to control the robots.“You can control them with a variety of other familiar devices. So that opens a lot of interesting applications - like having a therapist or a parent use our robots as a tool to interact with children - even the possibility of kids using the robot to express themselves and explore emotions on their own,” Sabrina Haskell, Interbots, Designer & Co-Founder, maintained.
Seema Patel, CEO and co-founder of Interbots said that the company has been experiencing lots of interests in their robots as potential tool for Autism therapy.“We've had numerous individuals tell us our robots could be tremendous tools for Autism therapy. We're excited to be working with the Autism Center of Pittsburgh and the Sprout Foundation to take this first step. We're going to learn a lot from the next few months,” Ms Patel, said.
“The premise behind the program is that children with autism are sometimes more likely to communicate with a non-human entity. When you have a child with autism, you use whatever interests them to gain access into their world. The idea is to bridge the gap between their word and ours,” Waeltermann explained.
Interbot officials have informed that the iPad application is currently in production and the program is slated to begin this fall.“Nobody is more excited than the parents of the children with autism who have the potential to gain great strides from this program. That's what this is all about -- thinking outside the box to reach these kids” Cindy Waeltermann concluded.
Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Erin Monda
