Descripción del proyecto
Un nuevo juguete interactivo ayuda a los jóvenes con trastorno del espectro autista
El trastorno del espectro autista (TEA) es un conjunto de afecciones del neurodesarrollo caracterizadas por una disfunción permanente, que varía en grado, de tres áreas básicas en el desarrollo psicológico de los niños: interacción social limitada, comunicación alterada o deficiente y actividades e intereses limitados. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos PlusMe está desarrollando un juguete interactivo blando (con la apariencia de un oso panda suave con forma de almohada) como una posible herramienta de apoyo para la terapia de niños con TEA. Gracias a dispositivos electrónicos integrados, este juguete experimental puede emitir respuestas atractivas, como luces de colores y sonidos divertidos cuando se tocan sus patas. Además, está conectado a una mesa de control para permitir que el cuidador adulto modifique las contingencias de entrada y salida, a fin de generar respuestas que recompensen habilidades sociales como la imitación, el contacto visual y los turnos de intervención.
Objetivo
+me is an experimental soft interactive toy with a panda form designed in collaboration with developmental therapists. Thanks to embedded electronics, +me can emit attractive responses as colored lights and amusing sounds when touched on paws. The device is connected to a control tablet to allow an adult caregiver to modify the input-output contingencies, so as to produce several rewarding response patterns according to child’s reaction. These features make +me a potential support tool for therapy of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD): the attractiveness and the functional versatility of the device could be exploited during play activities with a therapist to capture the interest of children, to encourage their social interactions, then reinforcing pivotal social skills as imitation, eye-contact, turn-taking.
+me is currently in experimental phase, in pilot tests on children (24-48 months) with ASD and Typical Development (TD). The experiments are conducted in collaboration with the Sec. of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry -Univ. of Rome “Sapienza”- whose researchers showed great interest to technological aid for therapy.
+me is an indirect -yet really promising- outcome of the ongoing FET project “Goal-based Open-ended Autonomous Learning Robots, GOAL-Robots” (Grant Agreement No. 713010).
The main goal of the proposal is to develop the +me from the current experimental prototype towards a “ready-for-market” product, certified for safe use in EU. The proposal aims to 1) engineer the prototype, through a third party company expert in electronic manufacturing, in order to realise a small-scale production of 10/20 working +me samples; 2) at the same time, continue the experimentation on TD and ASD children, to strengthen the scientific aspects of the device; 3) disclose the obtained results through scientific publications and participation to promotional events market-oriented, in forecast of a next possible commercialisation.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-03
Régimen de financiación
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinador
00185 Roma
Italia