Therapy through Play: Advancing the Role of Robotics in Paediatric Rehabilitation

摘要

This chapter describes the development and implementation of an adapted group-based robotics programme for children with disabilities, and their experiences within it. It explores the perceived impacts of the programme from the perspectives of clinicians and staff implementing the programme and the children engaged in it. Drawing on interviews with staff and children in the programme, the chapter discusses the evolution and development of an adapted group-based robotics programme within a paediatric rehabilitation hospital. It considers the future impact of the programme, and in particular, how people are building capacity to expand the programme to other sites in the broader community. Play can also promote the development of cognition, language and social competence while enhancing learning and providing a context for intervention strategies for other therapy goals. Youth who participated in the programme, their parents and staff leading remarked on how the robotics as an everyday technology helped enhance the clinical environment.