A Didactic Transmitter to Support the Communication and Learning Process of Children with Cerebral Palsy

GIIATa, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Calle Vieja 12-30 y Elia Liut, Cuenca, Ecuador

^a Corresponding author: jberrezuetag@est.ups.edu.ec

Abstract

Nowadays, more than one billion people live with some form of disability (almost 15% of the world population). In this line, the preterm and low weight in neonates constitute important public health problems, especially in low and middle income countries. Infants who survive preterm birth are at increased risk of developing neurological problems such as Cerebral Palsy (CP) and impaired cognitive function. The CP comprises a series of disturbances in brain functions, motor, hearing, vision and learning for people who have it. In the same way, this disease does not allow to patients to use ICT tools to express their feelings, ideas, and needs, or in general, improve their learning process. On this basis, in this paper we present a ICT-based tool that relies on an embedded system and a mobile application, able to be used by patients that can perform slight head movements, or hand movements. Likewise, our system can detect these movements to help during the communication or learning tasks. The system was evaluated and adjusted in several tests carried out with 47 children (20 girls, and 27 boys). The achieved results are encouraging, and have shown 89% of acceptance by the patients.