Understanding Work Environment of Therapists to Incorporate Robots into Education for Children with Developmental Disorders

This paper presents a preliminary research on introduction of robot technologies to the work environment of therapists including treatment preparation, management and even therapy sessions. As an initial step, expert interviews, ideation and prototyping were included in a design thinking workshop. The results from the expert interview showed that the therapists wanted technological supports in systematic data collection, easy-to-use and stimulable teaching aid and effective communication with parent. With these needs of the therapists, professionals from robotics group and therapy groups were participated in the workshop to discover technological solutions. In the prototyping phase of the design thinking workshop, the professionals from both groups created robot-assisted therapy with scenario based design. The workshop concluded with the advises of the professionals from therapy group that the expected robot technologies involve expressive robotic platform with autonomous modules in attracting child’s attention and motivating them, auxiliary sensors to gather child’s data installed in the environment, easily customizable software environment to program the robot, and data server for managing and sharing data of children with therapist, doctors, teachers and parents for consistent treatment. This conclusion clearly implies the way of developing robots for children with developmental disorders.