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A Story for Pepper & Nao
Sponsor: IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris
Summary
The aim of the present study is to improve cognitive processes that are frequently impaired in children characterised by neuromotor impairment, such as the skills of visual-perceptual analysis and selective attention, working memory, narrative organisation, logical-inferential reasoning and motor planning. For this purpose, a task of reordering figurative stories and action sequences, which include the aforementioned processes, will be used through an innovative Learning by Teaching training paradigm with a social robot. Furthermore, the study aims to verify the children's level of behavioural, cognitive and emotional engagement during the interaction with the social robot and to test the generalisation effects of the intervention on other processes, such as working memory, inhibition and planning.
Official title: A Story for Pepper and Nao: Applying the Learning by Teaching Paradigm in Children With Patterns of Neuromotor Impairment
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
7 Years - 16 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
80
Start Date
2025-04-01
Completion Date
2026-10-30
Last Updated
2026-04-02
Healthy Volunteers
No
Interventions
Training in reordering figurative stories with a social robot through the Learning by Teaching approach
A test session of the 'picture sequencing' task with the social robot is planned. The selected children will undergo an initial neuropsychological, motor and school learning assessment and will be divided into Group 1 and Group 2: Group 1 (Experimental) will be offered training with the social robot, while Group 2 (Control) will continue standard care. Both groups will be re-evaluated after approximately about 4 months. After which Group 2 will be able to start treatment. After about 4 months, the children in both groups will again undergo the planned assessments. During the training, the child will be asked to help the social robot to reorder sequences of pictures from figurative stories in order to create a story that respects temporal or causal links, or motor actions of increasing complexity, according to the Learning by Teaching paradigm.
Locations (3)
IRCCS Eugenio Medea
Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy
IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Naz.le C.Mondino
Pavia, Pavia, Italy
IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris
Calambrone, Pisa, Italy