Healthcare and robotics
By being involved in specific scenarios with the robot, autistic children can learn social interaction skills
Raja Khalid Shabbir is a medical doctor based in Islamabad Safia Amin is an IT expert
A future where hospitals would see humans and medical robots working abreast is near. This inevitable transition might as well revolutionise healthcare with the magnificent blend which a human mind and a robot’s precision and control brings.
While there are valid concerns about robotics replacing humans, the advantages are surely tempting. A medical robot is a multifunctional machine we see being used in complex surgical procedures, replacing missing limbs, rehabilitating stroke patients and performing other health-related tasks.
Of late, of interest to researchers is work on robot-assisted therapy in helping autistic children overcome their struggles. Autism is the most common neuro-developmental disorder of children characterised by difficulties to communicate, socialise and of cognition accompanied with inability to adapt to changes and rigid, repetitive behaviour. A research carried out recently at NUST assessed how these automatons could be used for behavioural assessment and improvement of an autistic child concluding that marked improvements could be achieved in various parameters such as joint attention, occlusion, distance from the robot, eye contact, social interaction, communication and many more depending upon the time taken and features chosen for each therapy.
A robot is not as complex as humans when it comes to patience and emotions. By being involved in specific scenarios with the robot, autistic children can learn social interaction skills like reading feelings and communication. Studies show that 30 per cent of the social and communication impairments can be improved with the help of robot-assisted therapy.
Every April 2nd, we celebrate World Autism Day. According to WHO, globally, one in every 160 children are autistic. There is no reliable data about the prevalence of autism in Pakistan, around 350,000 autistic children have been estimated to remain undiagnosed due to lack of awareness and expertise in diagnosis.
Before the age of about 18 months most of the signs of autism are difficult to be appreciated. Some of the earliest telltale manifestations include hypersensitivity to noise, poor eye contact, inconsistent reaction when a child’s name is called out despite of a normal hearing test, lost in his/her own world, not following objects visually, not being able to make friends, preferring to play alone, not participating in conversation and repetitive behaviours such as hand flapping or head banging. Recently researchers at the University of Warwick, England, found out that children with ASD had higher levels of certain proteins in their blood and urine. This could potentially lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
The best time to start treatment of autism in child’s brain is the initial three years of life. Treatment after this period, would result in poor disease prognosis as maximum brain growth would have been achieved.
As autistic patients are twice at risk of developing depression and anxiety, anti-depressive and anti-anxiety medications can be given to treatment-related conditions. Communication and socialisation issues can be solved by speech therapy and behavioural training. Most important is to educate and train parents who find it hard to face the diagnosis and subsequent treatment challenges of their children.
It is to the failing community support and discriminated treatment towards the disabled that doctors and researchers are trying to seek refuge in these metallic allies. Robot-assisted management is an emerging technology which has the potential to single-handedly change the lives of those on the autism spectrum.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 4th, 2018.
While there are valid concerns about robotics replacing humans, the advantages are surely tempting. A medical robot is a multifunctional machine we see being used in complex surgical procedures, replacing missing limbs, rehabilitating stroke patients and performing other health-related tasks.
Of late, of interest to researchers is work on robot-assisted therapy in helping autistic children overcome their struggles. Autism is the most common neuro-developmental disorder of children characterised by difficulties to communicate, socialise and of cognition accompanied with inability to adapt to changes and rigid, repetitive behaviour. A research carried out recently at NUST assessed how these automatons could be used for behavioural assessment and improvement of an autistic child concluding that marked improvements could be achieved in various parameters such as joint attention, occlusion, distance from the robot, eye contact, social interaction, communication and many more depending upon the time taken and features chosen for each therapy.
A robot is not as complex as humans when it comes to patience and emotions. By being involved in specific scenarios with the robot, autistic children can learn social interaction skills like reading feelings and communication. Studies show that 30 per cent of the social and communication impairments can be improved with the help of robot-assisted therapy.
Every April 2nd, we celebrate World Autism Day. According to WHO, globally, one in every 160 children are autistic. There is no reliable data about the prevalence of autism in Pakistan, around 350,000 autistic children have been estimated to remain undiagnosed due to lack of awareness and expertise in diagnosis.
Before the age of about 18 months most of the signs of autism are difficult to be appreciated. Some of the earliest telltale manifestations include hypersensitivity to noise, poor eye contact, inconsistent reaction when a child’s name is called out despite of a normal hearing test, lost in his/her own world, not following objects visually, not being able to make friends, preferring to play alone, not participating in conversation and repetitive behaviours such as hand flapping or head banging. Recently researchers at the University of Warwick, England, found out that children with ASD had higher levels of certain proteins in their blood and urine. This could potentially lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
The best time to start treatment of autism in child’s brain is the initial three years of life. Treatment after this period, would result in poor disease prognosis as maximum brain growth would have been achieved.
As autistic patients are twice at risk of developing depression and anxiety, anti-depressive and anti-anxiety medications can be given to treatment-related conditions. Communication and socialisation issues can be solved by speech therapy and behavioural training. Most important is to educate and train parents who find it hard to face the diagnosis and subsequent treatment challenges of their children.
It is to the failing community support and discriminated treatment towards the disabled that doctors and researchers are trying to seek refuge in these metallic allies. Robot-assisted management is an emerging technology which has the potential to single-handedly change the lives of those on the autism spectrum.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 4th, 2018.