Robots in Education and Care of Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Study on Acceptance by Experienced and Future Professionals

Research in the area of robotics has made available numerous possibilities for further innovation in the education of children, especially in the rehabilitation of thosewith learning difficulties and/or intellectual disabilities. Despite the scientific evidence, there is still a strong scepticism against the use of robots in the fields of education and care of people. Here we present a study on the acceptance of robots by experienced practitioners (specialized in the treatment of intellectual disabilities) and university students in psychology and education sciences (as future professionals). The aim is to examine the factors, through theUnifiedTheory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model, that may influence the decision to use a robot as an instrument The work of Alessandro Di Nuovo was partially supported by the EU under FP7 Grants no. 288899 (ROBOT-ERA). B Alessandro Di Nuovo [email protected] Daniela Conti [email protected] Santo Di Nuovo [email protected] Serafino Buono [email protected] 1 Doctoral School in Neuroscience, University of Catania, Via SantaSofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy 2 Department of Education Sciences, University of Catania, Via Biblioteca 4, 95124 Catania, Italy 3 Psychology Operative Unit, IRCCS “Maria SS” Oasi di Troina, 73, Conte Ruggero, 94018 Troina, Italy 4 Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University of Enna Kore, Viale delle Olimpiadi, 94100 Enna, Italy 5 Department of Computing, Sheffield Hallam University, 153 Arundel Street, S1 2NU Sheffield, UK in the practice. The overall results confirm the applicability of the model in the context of education and care of children, and suggest a positive attitude towards the use of the robot. The comparison highlights some scepticism among the practitioners, who perceive the robot as an expensive and limited tool, while students show a positive perception and a significantly higher willingness to use the robot. From this experience, we formulate the hypothesis that robots may be accepted if more integrated with standard rehabilitation protocols in a way that benefits can outweigh the costs.