All smiles for Elliot with the help of ‘Robert the Robot’
Monday, October 28th, 2024
Elliot was ten when he joined our BubbleBusters project. He’d already missed almost a year of school due to his condition, and it was unclear when he’d be able to return. He missed his friends a great deal, and his emotional wellbeing was extremely low.
Enter ‘Robert’ the AV1 robot, who brought Elliot back into contact with his school and his friends. Robert is Elliot’s eyes, ears and voice in the classroom, and he controls it remotely through a tablet computer.
The AV1 robot has played a crucial role in reconnecting Elliot with his education, He achieved a 100% score in a maths test earlier this year, and his Mum, Hayley, says that wouldn’t have been possible without Robert.
“Elliot feels he can now talk up in class, without being stared at, which he’d never done before,” added Hayley. “After almost a year of refusing to read out loud to his class because he was so self-conscious, Elliot ‘put his hand up’ through his robot and asked to read to everyone! The AV1 robot is utterly amazing!”
Elliot’s really grown attached to Robert, and although he doesn’t now need to use the robot all the time, he knows that Robert is there as a ‘safety net’.
Robert has also impressed the Special Educational Needs & Disabilities Coordinator at Elliot’s school, who said,
“The AV1 robot has enabled Elliot to engage with the classroom/learning and his peers in the first instance and has definitely been supportive in Elliot’s return to the classroom… I really do believe Elliot would not have got back into the classroom without the support of Robert.”
Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we’ve been able to continue to support Elliot, not only by loaning the robot but also with his access to videogames. We’ll be there for him in the future should he need our help.
Since the BubbleBusters Project started we’ve connected over 100 families with schools across the UK, and we look forward to our characterful little loan robots being reused again and again to help many more pupils in the future.
Find out more about our BubbleBusters project here.
(Images: A close-up image of Elliot during a visit to SpecialEffect, and a library image of an AV1 in use in a classroom)