Robo therapist: a sustainable approach to teach basic expressions for special needs children in Malaysia

  • Authors

    • Muhammad Zharif Amin
    • Norshuhani Zamin
    • Hazrita Ab Rahim
    • Nurmala Irdawaty Hassan
    • Nur Diyana Kamarudin
    2018-08-24
    https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i3.29.18533
  • Robotics, Special Needs, Sustainable, Emotions

  • Social interaction is an essential component for development of both normal and special needs children. However, many special needs children suffer from a lack of social interaction because they are unable to interpret social cues as well as a failure in social gaze when communicating. One of the ways to cope with these problems is to improve their social cognitive skill by teaching basic emotions through facial expressions. This paper describes the development of a new and sustainable teaching and learning approach using robotics to promote social interaction among special needs children of aged 4-6 years old. The robotic tool can teach basic facial expressions such as happy, sad and angry to increase emotion recognition skill among special needs children. The growing demand for technological innovation to enable empowerment of developing communities requires new and creative educational initiatives. Malaysia has also address it concerns on sustainable education for all spectrum of communities. RoboTherapist is a new teaching and learning method in Malaysia’s special education which targeting the special needs children. The special needs children are children with Autism, children with Down Syndrome, children with ADHD and slow learners. The aim of this research is to make teaching and learning more attentive for special needs children and hence to improve their social interaction in daily is life and gain confidence to communicate with the people around them.

     

  • References

    1. [1] American Academy of Pediatrics, American Public Health Association, & National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care. (2002). caring for our children: National health and safety performance standards: Guidelines for out-of-home child care programs, Second edition. Elk Grove, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics.

      [2] American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., pp. 34-36). Washington, D.C.

      [3] M. Sharma (2014). Including Children with Special Needs. 1st ed. New Delhi: Publication Division, pp.8-10.

      [4] Carman, S. N., & Chapparo, C. J. (2012). Children who have trouble with learning: mother and child perceptions of social competence. Australian occupational therapy journal, 59(5), 339-346.

      [5] Cebula, K. R., Moore, D. G., & Wishart, J. G. (2010). Social cognition in children with Down's syndrome: challenges to research and theory building. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 54(2), 113-134.

      [6] Poliakova, N., Palkhivala, A., & Johnson, J. (2008). Social impairment in children with autism spectrum disorder. Abilities, 14, 50-51.

      [7] Sterling, S. (2013). An analysis of the development of sustainability education internationally: Evolution, interpretation and transformative potential. In The sustainability curriculum (pp. 56-75). Routledge.

      [8] Lamport, M., Graves, L., & Ward, A. (2012). Special Needs Students in Inclusive Classrooms: The Impact of Social Interaction on Educational Outcomes for Learners with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, 1(5), 54-69.

      [9] Berry, A. B., & Gravelle, M. (2013). The benefits and challenges of special education positions in rural settings: Listening to the teachers. The Rural Educator, 34(2).

      [10] Nasir, M. N. A., & Efendi, A. N. A. E. (2017). Special education for children with disabilities in Malaysia: Progress and obstacles Muhamad Nadhir Abdul Nasir. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 12(10).

      [11] Cappe, E., Bolduc, M., Poirier, N., Popa-Roch, M.-A., & Boujut, E. (2017). Teaching students with Autism Spectrum Disorder across various educational settings: The factors involved in burnout. Teaching and Teacher Education, 498-508.

      [12] Southgate D. E., Roscigno V. J. (2009). The impact of music on childhood and adolescent achievement. Soc. Sci. Q. 90, 4–21. 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00598.x.

      [13] Kocabas, E. O., & Ozeke, S. (2012). Using Music and Musical Activities in Special Education: Developments in Turkey. Online Submission, 1(1), 73-79.

      [14] Franzone, E., & Collet-Klingenberg, L. (2008). Overview of video modeling. Madison, WI: The National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders, Waisman Center. University of Wisconsin, 1-2.

      [15] McCoy, K. & Hermansen, E. (2007). Video modeling for individuals with autism: A review of model types and effects. [Online version]. Education and Treatment of Children, 30, 183-213.

      [16] Alzyoudi, M., Sartawi, A., & Almuhiri, O. (2015). The impact of video modelling on improving social skills in children with autism. British Journal of Special Education, 42(1), 53-68.

      [17] Bailey, E. (2008). Role Playing to Teach Children with ADHD Social Skills | HealthCentral. Healthcentral.com. Retrieved 4 March 2018, from https://www.healthcentral.com/article/role-playing-to-teach-children-with-adhd-social-skills.

      [18] Conallen, K., & Reed, P. (2016). A teaching procedure to help children with autistic spectrum disorder to label emotions. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 23, 63-72.

      [19] Boyatzis, C. J., & Varghese, R. (1994). Children's emotional associations with colors. The Journal of genetic psychology, 155(1), 77-85.

      [20] D'andre, R., & Egan, M. (1974). The colors of emotion. American ethnologist, 1(1), 49-63.

      [21] Naz, K. A. Y. A., & Epps, H. (2004). Relationship between color and emotion: A study of college students. College Student J, 38(3), 396.

      [22] Karna-Lin, E., Pihlainen-Bednarik, K., Sutinen, E., & Virnes, M. (2006, July). Can robots teach? Preliminary results on educational robotics in special education. In Advanced Learning Technologies, 2006. Sixth International Conference on (pp. 319-321). IEEE.

      [23] Patrizia, M., Claudio, M., Leonardo, G., & Alessandro, P. (2009, June). A robotic toy for children with special needs: From requirements to design. In Rehabilitation Robotics, 2009. ICORR 2009. IEEE International Conference on (pp. 918-923). IEEE.

      [24] Miskam, M. A., Shamsuddin, S., Samat, M. R. A., Yussof, H., Ainudin, H. A., & Omar, A. R. (2015). Humanoid robot NAO as a teaching tool of emotion recognition for children with autism using the Android app. In 2014 International Symposium on Micro-NanoMechatronics and Human Science, MHS 2014 [7006084] Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. DOI: 10.1109/MHS.2014.7006084

  • Downloads

  • How to Cite

    Zharif Amin, M., Zamin, N., Ab Rahim, H., Irdawaty Hassan, N., & Diyana Kamarudin, N. (2018). Robo therapist: a sustainable approach to teach basic expressions for special needs children in Malaysia. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(3.29), 103-106. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i3.29.18533