Recently, PHS and Throop Elementary adopted a new resource and curriculum to help children with autism in their special education programs. The resource is called RoboKind.
“RoboKind is a curriculum used in conjunction with a robot and virtual avatar. It is used to improve social and behavioral skills for students, particularly those with autism. These facially-expressive robots and avatars increase student engagement,” said Speech-Language Pathologist Abby Newkirk.
On the RoboKind website, more information about these robots is provided on their website. On their website, RoboKind shares that they are an education technology company that combines assistive technology and meaningful curriculum to help accelerate measurable outcomes for marginalized students like students with autism.
According to Newkirk, people with autism often struggle with social and emotional skills, such as communication, which this new resource helps address.
“As a general rule, kids with autism, people with autism, have trouble with communication. You would notice that even in older adults with autism, their social skills aren’t fully developed. It’s an area that they really struggle with,” said Newkirk.
Throop obtained the robots in February with the RoboKind grant, which was offered by the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE).
“We have received two RoboKind robots after SCASEC (South Central Area Special Education Cooperative) Director Lori Sims applied for the grant made available from IDOE,” said Newkirk. “Lori talked to Holly, me, and Carrie Crowder, and she wanted us to spearhead it. She thought we would be the ones who would use it and really implement it.”
Holly Vincent, Carrie Crower, and Newkirk are all speech therapists at Paoli and are the ones who initially embraced the idea, teaching using the curriculum.
“Agreement-wise, they want us to use it with fidelity. That means they want us to show that we’re using it in order to keep them. If we don’t use them, they will take them away because these are thousands of dollars. I mean, they’re very expensive,” said Newkirk.
Ways Newkirk and teachers in the special education department show that the RoboKind Robots are being used includes providing pictures, videos, and recordings of students interacting with the robots.
“Each robot’s going to have two to three students to target. They are going to try to use it with fidelity, meaning they’ll try to follow the curriculum and have a lesson for each kid,” said Newkirk.
Since Throop has only had this resource for a short time, it has not been determined whether more RoboKind robots will be bought.
Newkirk predicts RoboKind will be used at both the high school and the elementary school in the future, however it depends on if this resource still helps improve the communication skills of older students.
