Joint attention is a crucial social skill
that children along the autism spectrum often have difficulty mastering. Joint
attention is the ability for a child to share the same focus as another
person. This shared focus includes
looking at the same item, and sharing the same intentions as the other person.
The ability to master this skill has strong implications for language
development, bonding and empathy for the autistic child.
In the past, learning this skill often
meant hours of intense specialised and individualised instruction with the
child and their teachers, parents and other caregivers. Now, there is a new
tool to help children along the autism spectrum to master this critically
important skill – interactive robots. Researchers at Vanderbilt University in
the United States have developed a humanoid robot that can be programmed to
instruct and adapt with children as they learn about and practice this skill. In fact, research shows that children along the autism spectrum may be able to
learn and practice this skill better with the robot than with a human
counterpart.
This unique and exciting breakthrough was
recently discussed in an article
in the March edition of IEEE Transactions
on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. Building upon the success
that researchers have made with using the robot to teach joint attention skill,
the researchers plan to modify the robot’s programming to teach children
additional skills such as role playing, sharing, and imitation learning. The
researchers will then conduct studies to see if the robot is as successful at
helping children to learn and practice these additional skills as it was in
teaching joint attention.
While the researchers stress that the robot
will never be able to take the place of human assessment and interaction with
children, this robot does seem to be a promising tool that can help children
acquire the skills that they need in a fun and stimulating way.
What do you think of the idea? Will it work?
