Teaching Psychomotor Skills to Autistic Children by Employing a Robotic Training Kit: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder is becoming a global challenge as the number of children affected by it increases drastically. Autistic children suffer from impairments such as social interactions, language and communication skills, cognitive skills and psychomotor skills. A number of technological systems have been put to use for training children with autism. The children’s attraction towards robot and robot like features promotes the use of assistive technology in rehabilitating autistic children. This paper focuses on teaching psychomotor skills to autistic children by employing a robotic training kit. The scope of the training includes learning the concept of directions and the ability to operate a joystick so as to manipulate the robot as per given instructions. Training and trials were conducted under the supervision of a speech therapist. The study demonstrated the positive response of employing the robotic kit in imparting the knowledge of directions, hand–eye coordination and palmar grasp.