Earlier this year, Leka, the vibrating 'social robot' for autistic kids, was introduced to the public. Leka can help kids on the spectrum to learn new skills by providing sensory stimulation through vibration, sound and lights. This robot can have social interaction with the kids and make learning easier and more effective.
Leka was just a round head that seems to be having life to talk to a kid on the spectrum. However recently, TechCrunch has just introduced "Pepper," the Robot-powered Autism Solutions robot. Pepper is not just a head but a full robot with a head, body, arms, legs and everything. It has a screen on the chest where flash cards are shown. The game happens when Pepper gets the right card from the kid, and when it is correct, they get a high five and the robot will say "good job!". Getting two high fives will let Pepper do a happy dance and show a smile on screen. Such will help the kid see the robot's emotion. And sure it is fun to have Pepper come by for every parent's kid to play with.
Pepper, according to a review by a child, can help in building better concepts of emotions and to get a more stable thinking and focus. Leka, on the other hand, in its small size can help answer some specific needs of the kids like getting better focus on multi-sensory stimulation. Having Leka tried by some autistic kids, there were positive feedbacks like the improvement of sensory processing and anxiety reduction because of the colors, sounds and vibrations programmed in it.
Autistic kids are mostly having trouble getting emotional bond with other people, according to the Child Development Institute. They tend to be different and remote, seemingly having no space in the community or any arm or leg in the society. On another note, most of these kids are super intelligent that they actually have humungous and unbelievable contribution in many fields in the corporate world such as technology. They need help and an upgraded special education too. Robots are great part of this. Autism organizations wish to get more funding, though.
