Using Lego Robots to Estimate Cognitive Ability in Children Who Have Severe Physical Disabilities

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Harbottle, N.
  • Volden, J.
  • Harbottle, C.
  • Cook, A.M.
  • Adams, K.D.

• Abstract Purpose: To determine whether low cost robots provide a means by which children with severe disabilities can demonstrate understanding of cognitive concepts. Method: Ten children, ages 4 to 10, diagnosed with cerebral palsy and related motor conditions, participated. Participants, had widely variable motor, cognitive and receptive language skills, but all were non-speaking. A Lego Invention “roverbot” was used to carry out a range of functional tasks from single switch replay of pre-stored movements to total control of the movement in two dimensions. The level of sophistication achieved on hierarchically arranged play tasks was used to estimate cognitive skills. Results: The 10 children performed at one of six hierarchically arranged levels from “no interaction” through “simple cause and effect” to “development and execution of a plan”. Teacher interviews revealed that children were interested in the robot, enjoyed interacting with it and demonstrated changes in behavior, and social and language skills following interaction. Conclusions: Children with severe physical disabilities can control a Lego robot to perform un-structured play tasks. In some cases, they were able to display more sophisticated cognitive skills through manipulating the robot than in traditional standardized tests. Success with the robot could be a proxy measure for children who have cognitive abilities but cannot demonstrate them in standard testing.

• Date created

  2011

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Lego robots
  • cognitive ability
  • children
  • physical disability
  • play

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3GN14

• License

  Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 International