Autistic Children get Leaning Help from Friendly Robot “Russell”

Often one of the greatest challenges to helping children with autism to learn is finding a way to engage with them. According to a report from the National Science Foundation (NSF), new help for autistic children may come from a small friendly robot named “Russell.”

Science Nation Correspondent Miles O’Brien reported in the video below on the work of Nilanjan Sarkar, a mechanical and computer engineer, and psychologist Zachary Warren of Vanderbilt University. The two have teamed up to develop a way to engage and help autistic children learn through technology – something which many children with autism are drawn to.

“Children with autism spectrum disorders show early impairments in social interaction and social communication. They understand the physical world much better than the social world,” explains Sarkar.


At the center of technology laden learning environment in this autism learning program is “Russell.” As can be seen in the video, the little robot works with the children on their ability to imitate others – an important skill for learning.

The autistic children find it easier to interact with Russell because he is not a complex as a human, say the researchers, making it easier for the children to engage and react with it.

“Engineering researchers are investigating new designs that allow robots to interact easily and work cooperatively with humans,” says Ted Conway, program director in the NSF Directorate for Engineering. “The success of these ‘co-robots’ requires intelligent human-robotic performance that can adapt to a variety of applications.”