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Maple Grove School:

Maple Grove is a special needs education school for autistic children aged between 5-18, who have a range of additional needs. The school offers a diverse range of educational support for students, including speech and language interventions.

Challenges in delivering special needs educational support

Many autistic students in the school struggle with social interaction and require support to help them with social interaction and communication. Students have shown a high interest in technology and find working with technology very appealing. Therefore, the school decided to utilize robot-assisted intervention to support students in learning new skills.

Robot-assisted Speech and Language Interventions

QTrobot, a specialized robot for autism and special needs education, was utilized within the school to provide support for autistic children. QTrobot, with its friendly face and character, sits nicely between technology and social interaction. The robot was used to deliver social interventions as well as speech and language interventions, without increasing social demand.

Impact of the Robot-Assisted Speech and Language Interventions:

Several key areas of impact emerge from the use of QTrobot:

  • For the youngest students who are non-verbal, the robot has proven to be very effective in helping them with joint attention. Students focus and engage better during interactions with the robot, which is very helpful in their learning, 
  • Since the robot can be personalized for students, they can form an emotional bond with it. They can tell their names to the robot,  and they can ask questions and respond to the robot’s questions.
  • The robot can assist speech therapists in supporting more students in the school and in delivering SLP (Speech-Language Pathology) programs.

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