This week was a landscape changing moment for the advancement
of Robot-mediated Behavior Intervention for autism. Three years ago, I discovered
that as nation we faced an epidemic in the growth of the number of children impacted
with autism. Like many others I thought of autism as only a childhood disease. As
I learned more, I came to understand the impact that autism has on the entire
lives of children and their families. And,
that these ‘children’ must face the challenge of learning the skills needed to become
a self-sufficient, independent adult. I came
to understand that autism is not a disease and that it is a human condition. I
have been continually motivated by the dedication of the many therapists, school
teachers and parents that I have met along the way. I decided to see if and what role technology might
play in helping meet the challenges.
In my opinion there exists an abundance of researchers and
clinicians that contribute mightily to the ‘science’ of diagnosis and care
strategies. What I felt was missing was a strategy for those delivering the
care. What was currently being done was not sufficiently scalable to meet the
rapidly escalating need. The growing volume of the requirements for care are over-whelming
the existing care giving resource model. This is true on multiple fronts.
Trained care givers are growing in short supply in proportion to the need. Institutions
are unable to subsidize the increasing costs of professional care delivery. The
medical re-imbursement and insurance systems are playing catch-up while families
struggle to afford early diagnosis and arrange early care. Early care being one
of the best mediations.
Even on the corporate front the recognition that a new model
is needed is growing.
Corporate programs are starting to emerge. If employing
individuals on the autism spectrum is becoming a need and a value- based element
of corporate and community responsibility, then special educational and training
programs are needed to guide managers and create successful management policies
that positively embrace employees with autism in their employee base.
So, the framework of a structural response by and with technology
started to reveal itself. I called it the 1-2-3 model and I searched the world
to build it.
One. From Japan, I landed upon the use of the NAO
social robot from SoftBank Robotics to deliver robot-based mediated behavior
interventions. The NAO robot was engaging to many children with autism. The robots
were in many circumstances, calming. They were non-threatening. They didn’t tire.
They didn’t grow or convey frustration. They could be made to deliver sessions customized
to the needs and conditions of an individual child. And, they worked!
Two. The next
step was to find a robot-based system that could be operated by non-technical
personnel in a common school classroom. That has now been accomplished with askNAO
a computer tablet-based system from ERM Robotique in France that easily and quickly connects
to the robot and with ‘one touch icons’ be made to deliver an intervention session.
Three. A comprehensive
autism therapy practice management system was needed to improve the efficiency,
effectiveness and lower the cost of therapy practice operations and care delivery.
Integration with the robot and the behaviors was needed. That is now available with
TN
ActiveCare from Canadian Company
TN NORTH.
So here we are ChartaCloud ROBOTTECA in the U.S. now deploying, installing and training
end users on a platform that can deliver results in autism therapies, expand
delivery resource capacity and lower delivery costs.
I call what has happened - landscape changing. If you would
like to learn more about the detailed elements of this platform please message me
at mike@chartacloud.com I’d be happy
to send you a detailed solution brief.
Mike Radice is Chairman of the Technology Advisory Board of ChartaCloud
| ROBOTTECA www.robotteca.com
