BELLEVILLE, NJ — The following article comes courtesy of Belleville Township. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site.
He has spikey brown hair, stands less than 2 feet tall and is helping special needs students in the township.
Milo, a robot that is especially effective in interacting with students with autism, made his debut at last month’s council meeting.
He was purchased for the township’s school district with money raised at last April’s Color Run.
“We wanted to give the township’s educators something to help them instruct our special needs students,” said Deputy Mayor Vincent Cozzarelli. “Milo is an innovative teaching tool that aims to help students with their communication skills and their social skills.”
A committee comprising Cozzarelli, Councilwoman Naomy De Peña, Board of Education member Christine Lamparello, Belleville resident Nicholas Condito and his daughter, Nicole, donated about $500 to Autism Speaks and Autism NJ – both non-profit advocacy groups. Also, the participating township schools received a portion of the proceeds from the Color Run.
The rest of the more than $10,000 was earmarked to purchase Milo.
The committee also used the proceeds to pay for some of the school district’s teachers to learn how to use Milo as an educational tool.
Milo, who was created by the Dallas-based RoboKind, is often a hit with students with special needs because they are typically fascinated by technology and are eager to engage with the robot.
One advantage of having Milo in the classroom is that he can deliver the same lesson over and over without getting tired or frustrated. Plus, he uses consistent, simplified language and tone of voice and speech that is slightly slower for better comprehension.
As Milo speaks, symbols are displayed on his chest screen that help students reinforce what he is saying. Throughout the lessons, Milo asks students to watch short clips on the student tablet. The videos show people displaying the skills or behaviors both correctly and incorrectly that Milo is teaching. Students are asked yes or no questions to determine if the people in the video are behaving correctly.
Condito said he hatched the idea of using the Color Run to raise money to help township kids with autism.
“We were at a public event and I happened to mention the idea to Councilwoman De Peña,” Condito said. “She liked the idea and brought it straight to Mayor (Michael) Melham.”
Condito said the idea was to plan the Color Run around April 2, which is World Autism Awareness Day. April is also recognized internationally as National Autism Awareness Month.
Before long, kids were racing around Belleville High School, being doused with various colored powder, having a great time and raising money for a great cause.
“Milo is an effective and fun way for our students with autism to learn,” De Peña said. “I’m proud that residents from across the township came together to raise the money to purchase this innovative learning tool. As we see a growing number of children diagnosed with autism and other developmental disabilities, we welcome Milo to supplement the curriculum now in place in our schools.”
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