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Robots Teach Kids With Motor Skills Disorder to Write

by Terrence O'Brien on October 21, 2009 at 07:29 AM

Researchers at the University of Leeds are developing a device that lets children with dyspraxia, a motor-skills deficit, perform exercises designed to help them improve coordination. Similar to the high-degree-of-freedom interfaces used by computer animators and modelers, the device is essentially a digital pen attached to a robotic arm, and is used to control various games and activities, such as pushing virtual objects along a 3-D course. The arm exerts resistive forces to help guide the child's arm and hand.

Children with dyspraxia have trouble performing and completing many actions that require hand and finger dexterity (e.g., using a fork and knife, writing with a pen and paper). There have long been exercises to help such children develop control of their upper extremities, but until now the necessary equipment was confined to hospitals and clinics. With this project, the research team at Leeds is shrinking said equipment down, making it compatible with PCs, and thus allowing the exercises to be performed in the home.

Researchers have said that the arm is performing well in these early trials, and that children are showing improvements in handwriting after using it. A final version is expected to be released in 2012. [From: CNET and University of Leeds]

Tags: dyspraxia, health, physical therapy, PhysicalTherapy, robots, top, University of Leeds, UniversityOfLeeds

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