using a nao humanoid robot to enhance the learning of children with learning disabilities
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Using a NAO humanoid robot to enhance the learning of children with learning disabilities Interactive Technologies and Games (ITAG) Conference 2014 Health, Disability and Education Dates: Thursday 16 October 2014 - Friday 17 October 2014 Location: The Council House, NG1 2DT, Nottingham, UKTRANSCRIPT
Using a NAO humanoid robot to
enhance the learning of children
with learning disabilities Jessica Peter Roscoe
Penny Standen
Rationale for the study…
Learning disabilities affect 1-2% of the population
Delays in intellectual and social functioning,
Communication barriers
need high levels of support with activities of daily living
may have additional sensory or physical disabilities, complex health
needs or mental health difficulties
may have challenging behaviours
Rationale for the study…
Minimal research using the NAO robot with children with learning
disabilities.
The research which does exist using NAO focuses on children with
autism who have different needs than children with learning
disabilities.
“supressing a child's autistic behaviour”1
The opportunity to bypass the need for assistive technology.
Robots have captured public imagination.
Research plan
What did the teachers want the
robot to do?
To produce a behaviour that acted
as a reward
To perform behaviours that were appealing to the pupil or enjoyable in their
own right.
To do something instrumental in
achieving a learning objective.
To give commands or prompts so the pupil responds with the required behaviour
Demo for teachers
Initial interview
Classroom
engagement profile
Programming
Initial session
Four video recorded
sessions
Video analysis
Participants
Eleven students
Varying degrees of learning disabilities
P-stage one to level three of the National Curriculum
Nine male, two female
In Each Session…
Overarching goal
Encouragement/rewards
The goal was to encourage the participant to interact with
technology using micro-switches and make choices
NAO would encourage interaction by dancing to the participants
chosen song
For example…
Video example
Another example….
The goal was to teach the participant to use a joystick to control NAO
This knowledge would then hopefully help him to use his new joystick
controlled motorised wheelchair
Enable increased independence
NAO can be used with a variety of different input devices
Micro-switches
Tablets
Joysticks
Games console controllers
SSATrust engagement profile
SSATrust engagement scale Engagement
Indicators
Score
(0–4) What happened? What happened / what didn’t happen and why?
Next actions What will I do next time and why? How will I
make the activity more appealing (see Inquiry
Framework)?
Awareness
Curiosity
Investigation
Discovery
Anticipation
Initiation
Persistence
Total score NB NOW CIRCLE TOTAL SCORE ON SCALE (previous page)
Key for scoring
0 1 2 3 4
No focus Low and
minimal levels –
emerging /
fleeting
Partly sustained Mostly sustained Fully sustained
Engagement is the
single best predictor of
successful learning
Allows teachers to
focus on the child’s
engagement
Used originally to
create personalised
learning pathways
Adapted for use with
NAO
Video analysis
Goal achievement
Assistance required
Duration of engagement
Findings
Significantly more engagement when working with the robot
than when working without (using the engagement scale)
10% Increase in engagement (using video analysis)
Small decrease in assistance required by pupils throughout the
study
Small decrease in pupil attainment of goals throughout the
study
Conclusions
Higher level of engagement associated with the use of a Nao
humanoid robot
Rating scale results potentially open to bias as it was not possible to
carry them out without knowing which condition the pupil was in.
Video analysis also showed high levels of engagement and these did
not decline over time suggesting that the novelty factor of working
with a robot had not waned at least for the duration of the study.
Further research required, some evidence was non statistically
significant due to the small sample size
Acknowledgements