“I was surprised that he watched all the facial expressions,” said Zakrajsek, who is also Plante’s teacher in the multiple disabilities unit at Shelby High School, where she’s an intervention specialist.
Because Plante has autism, he has a hard time reading emotions on people’s faces and responding in socially appropriate ways. Typically, he doesn’t watch a person’s face for clues about their feelings.
That’s where Milo, a tabletop humanoid robot designed to help students with autism, comes in. With surprisingly human-like facial expressions, a consistent vocal tone and the capacity for countless repetition of three years’ worth of curriculum, Milo connects with students across the autism spectrum.
Plante has autism and Down Syndrome and is non-verbal, but Milo can also help students with mild autism spectrum disorders.
While other students in Zakrajsek’s unit don’t gravitate toward the spikey-haired robot — one says it looks like Chucky from the horror film series — students on the autism spectrum seem drawn to it.
“They’re just captivated by the voice of the robot and the movement of the robot,” Zakrajsek said, so Milo can be a non-threatening way to learn some of the social norms and behaviors that are difficult for these students.
To use the Robots4Autism curriculum with Milo, both Plante and Zakrajsek use an iPad to control the robot. Zakrajsek selects activities and games, and Plante uses the touch-screen to interact with the robot.
In one exercise, Milo demonstrates a smile and a frown, explaining to Plante how people turn up the sides of their mouth when they are happy and lower them when they are sad.
As Milo speaks, symbols are displayed on a screen on his chest to help learners better understand what he is saying.
Throughout the lessons, Milo asks students to watch four to five second video clips on the iPad and asks yes or no questions to test comprehension.
Unlike human teachers, Milo never gets frustrated or tired. The robot will go over a concept as many times as a student needs.
Milo has lessons to teach students how to greet people and how to interact during a play date. He also has a “calm down” module that instructors can activate if a student becomes overstimulated. In “calm down” mode, Milo teaches students to cope with techniques like counting to 10 or squeezing a stress ball.
For now, Shelby is using a robot on loan from the Make It Fit Foundation while trying to raise money to buy one for the district.
Shelby High School seniors Karli Ingle and Ellie Korbas donated the proceeds from this year’s Autism 5K Color Walk/Run to the school toward the purchase of the $16,000 robot, and the district is still collecting donations for the cause.
If the district is able to buy one of the robots, Zakrajsek said, she will take it from building to building to work with students of all ages. The robot collects data on student progress, which will provide educators with information about how students on the autism spectrum are doing with non-academic skills.