One of the greatest challenges autistic students face in the classroom is connecting with their teachers and classmates. Autistic children struggle with social interactions and communication, making it difficult for them to learn from others. Aldebaran Robotics’ Nao Robot is helping to reach autistic children in ways that teachers aren’t always able to, and it’s making a difference in schools all over the world.
Harbor School, a New Jersey school for children ages 5 to 21 who have multiple disabilities, has been using its Nao robot, Sheldon, in its classrooms since January. The 58cm tall humanoid robot has the ability to move, talk and recognize people. Nao uses plain speech and lacks facial expressions and body language, allowing some children with autism to interact with the robot more effectively than with humans.
“What we notice when we’re using Sheldon now is the ability that our students with autism have to connect to Sheldon. The eye contact is great, it’s noticeably there. They seem to have more of a peaceful, calming connection to him. We’ve really seen that he’s able to help our students focus longer,” says Dana Giblin, a supervisor at Harbor School.
Aldebaran’s ASK Nao program (Autistic Solution for Kids) installed more than 50 apps in Nao robots that are specifically created for children with autism. These apps include identification, language, and categorizing games, to name a few.
Shevi Greebel, a teacher at Harbor School, has used Sheldon in her classroom and her students’ responses have been positive. “I’ve used him to do yoga in some classrooms and the kids really like it, they respond well to it. He has an identification game we’ve used in my classroom. The game involves categorizing, identification and numbers… He engages them more than a regular teacher would in some ways.”
“I saw the robot a couple of times at some autism workshops and what I was able to see was the evidence, the research-base that it really is an assistive technology instruction tool that enables instruction to be interactive, engaging with a humanoid not necessarily as a replacement for the human piece, but as an instructional tool.”
—Shevi Greebel, teacher at Harbor School
Teachers can further understand Nao’s effectiveness in the classroom through the ASK Nao online interface. This component of the program allows teachers to manage, monitor and analyze the robot’s applications and interactions with students through the data and information stored online. The ability to customize Nao Robots’ programs and track its impact on learning sets Nao apart from other friendly robots.
While learning how to use the program may seem like a challenge, Aldebaran has made its ASK Nao program very user friendly. Helpful features include exclusive online training and tutorials to help aide teachers in learning and understanding the robot itself, its applications, and the online interface.
“Once you get familiar with the software and how he moves and how he works it really isn’t as hard as it looked like it could be. You just program him to do something and he’ll do it. There’s a lot of pre-programming on there so a lot of applications are on there already,” explains Shevi.
Studies have already shown that some children with autism achieved a 30 percent increase in social interactions and improved verbal communication when working with a robot in the classroom. It is this evidence that led Shevi to pursue introducing Nao to her students at Harbor School.
“I saw the robot a couple of times at some autism workshops and what I was able to see was the evidence, the research-base that it really is an assistive technology instruction tool that enables instruction to be interactive, engaging with a humanoid not necessarily as a replacement for the human piece, but as an instructional tool,” says Shevi.
Nao Robot has been used in more than 70 countries, and with its already proven success in classrooms such as the Harbor School, it has the potential to make a significant impact on the education of children with autism and their ability to interact with others.
“What I think is really great to talk about is that he’s not just a toy,” concludes Dana. “He is definitely an instructional tool that motivates and really enables students to focus on instruction and different areas of language development. We see it as a great addition to our curriculum.”
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