UofL researchers discover robots help students with autism learn

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Researchers at the University of Louisville used robots and virtual reality to help students with autism learn.

In a study, researchers Drs. Mohammad Nasser Saadatzi and Karla Conn Welch used an artificially intelligent robot, named NAO, to play the role of a classmate in a mock classroom setting.

A student with autism would sit next to the robot while a teacher on a video screen, through virtual reality, would teach them words.

Saadatzi said there were three students with autism from the ages of six to eight years old who would go to the lab two to three times a week for four months while the study was being conducted.

“They were learning words based on just being in the same room as the robot acting like a peer that was also learning words,” Welch said.

Welch and Saadatzi found students were learning words faster while the robot was with them in the controlled setting.

After the student or the robot got a word right, the virtual reality teacher would congratulate them on being correct.

“So we are using this capacity of technology to develop some intelligent tutoring systems that can make and engaging learning experience and increase their attention and motivation and ultimately they are learning things,” Saadatzi said.

Saadatzi believes the controlled environment helped students feel more comfortable, without fear of being made fun of while learning.

“[The robots] can celebrate success of the student, celebrate correct answers and they can be a friendly companion for these students,” Saadatzi said.

Students also practiced their social skills like turn-taking, listening to someone else speak, compliance, joint attention, etc. during the research.

“We do want it to continue to advance, we're still interested in these questions,” Welch said. “We do see some great potential in using robots and other types of technologies to engage students with autism, to bring them out to create a comfortable learning environment so they learn more, process through those experiences. Maybe they're more comfortable in other environments that do involve more complex situations like a human peer, a whole classroom of peers, adult and children their age.”

UofL researchers will soon be able to do more research related to robots and autism, too.

They received a new $1.2 million federal grant to continue research over the next four years on the ways robots can help autistic children learn.

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