An educational support tool based on robotic assistants, mobile apps, and expert systems for children with Down syndrome

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) claims that each year approximately 303,000 newborns die due congenital anomalies. These such of diseases can produce long-term disabilities, and the three most critical congenital anomalies are heart defects, neural tube defects, and Down syndrome (DS). Ecuador is a country with a high prevalence of DS, since 1 out of every 700 children born with this disease. On the other hand, worldwide, the number of children born with DS is 1 per 1,000. For these reasons, in this paper, we present a technological tool aimed at supporting the school curriculum for children from 6 to 12 years with DS. This tool relies on a low-cost robotic assistant, a mobile app, and a module to suggest educational activities for the children. With the aim of determining the children’s response to the robot as well as to the mobile application, we have conducted a first pilot experiment with 21 children (without disabilities). Each of the participating children interacted with the system, and after this activity, they responded a survey. The initial results have shown that children are very interested and motivated to perform educational activities with the robot.