Students with Autism Thrive with Help from NAO
Marketing Team
News
Nutley, New Jersey—Students of the Phoenix Center, a school for students with autism and other disabilities, are finding success in their learning with a little help from NAO, the humanoid robot.
The non-profit school, which serves students ages 5-26 from 60 school districts across New Jersey, introduced their staff to NAO in 2016 with their purchase of a JumpStart NAO product bundle from Teq. Designed to help educators develop the skills to create NAO-centered actives, JumpStart NAO pairs the NAO robot with 5 days of onsite PD. This training, which was delivered by Teq PD Specialist, Dan Mineo, provided the instructors of the Phoenix Center with the guidance and confidence to successfully implement the robotics program in their school.
According to Marc Restaino, a Tech Instructor for the Phoenix Center, “We envisioned human-robot program as a way for students to work on not only speech and language, but also social skills.” Since the implementation of the robot, the program has achieved that and more.
“There is an unexplainable wonderment that these kids have when they interact with [NAO]” said Phoenix Center Speech Therapist, Mali Desantis. “[NAO] keeps them wanting more and keeps them learning and growing.”
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To learn more about JumpStart NAO, and see how it can benefit your students,
visit https://34.201.222.12/stem/jumpstart-nao-robot/.
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