Caregivers' support for Children with Motor Impairments in Robot-mediated Play Contexts. A Case-Study for the Investigation of Adult/Child Relationship in Supporting Play Development

This article investigates the mediating role of robotic technologies in supporting the play skills and performances of children with Cerebral Palsy. The results presented here are the outcomes of experimentation conducted by the research group the University of Aosta Valley. At the beginning the research goal was to test the hypothesis that children’s spatial visualization abilities could be influenced by playing sessions that involved the use of these abilities. During the analysis of the videos and notes taken by therapists and researchers who took part in the experimental sessions it emerged that this hypothesis had to be discarded, but another research topic became evident: the caregivers’ verbal and physical prompts was a crucial determining factor in letting children acquire play competence through the interaction with robotic technologies.