Give Children Toys Robots to Educate and/or Neuroreeducate: The Example of PEKOPPA

Abstract

Using an InterActor toy robot named PEKOPPA in a “speaker-listener” situation, we have compared the verbal and the emotional expressions of neurotypical and autistic children aged 6-7 years. The speaker was always a child (neurotypical or autistic); the listener was a human or the toy robot which reacts to speech expression by nodding only. The results appear to indicate that minimalistic artificial environments could be considered as the root of neuronal organization and reorganization with the potential to improve brain activity. They would support the embrainment of cognitive verbal and nonverbal emotional information processing.