An Interactive Game-based Learning Framework with a Social Robot to Promote Well-being of Dyslexic Children

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary design and development of a generalized Child-Robot-Interaction framework involving interactive game-play between the socially assistive robot NAO and children with varying types of dyslexia. Our framework aims to enhance the learning and overall development of dyslexic children by integrating four vital modalities - auditory, visual and bodily kinaesthetic, Reading and writing styles together into a set of four interactive games. These games, namely - Picture Memory (P), Sound and Read (S), Spelling (S) and Spatial (S) abbreviated as PSSS focus on aiding dyslexic children with their language skill sets such as reading, speaking, writing and listening, with the future goal being improving their mental well-being. Each of the games starts with the robot providing a set of instructions regarding the game to the child followed by the child playing the game with the robot. The PSSS games have been designed by taking prior literature and scientific data on child psychology, special education pedagogical methods, and linguistic studies into consideration. This research provides detailed experimental demonstrations of the design and working of the proposed framework. In the future, we intend to integrate the framework into real-time Human-Robot-Interaction studies to help children with special needs improve their mental health, confidence and ability to learn better.