Autistic (患自闭症的) children may learn better from robots than from human beings, according to a study at a school in Birmingham.
Two robots like humans, Max and Ben, have been helping teach autistic children at Sutcliffe Pimary School since March last year. The school is the first in the UK to try the new way.
Lan Lowe, the head teacher, said, "The robots have no feelings so autistic children find that they are less terrible than their teachers."
He added, "They are really cute-looking. Autistic children feel it difficult to communicate with adults and other children, but for some reasons they like these robots. "
"Some children are not able to communicate with others. But they come to school and start to communicate through the robots."
The robots are knee-high and move like children. The school is using them to teach phonics (声学) and play cards or memory and imitation (模仿) games with children from five to ten.
Dr Guldberg said, "We do many different activities with the robots acting as a model for the children's behavior. It is amazing to see how interested and concentrated the children can be when they are working with the robots. It can be very difficult to get autistic children to concentrate."
He added, "If you can meet the needs of autistic children, you can meet the needs of all children. And you know, when people feel safe and interested, they learn much better."
