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Traditional child patient care needs human workers, who are limited due wage shortage and other factors. Using technologies such as robotics may be a viable alternative as a care assistant to improve child patients' wellbeing, especially when the UK government is encouraging robotics and artificial intelligence innovation. Literature found positive implications for the use of robotics for child patients, such as social humanoid robots providing emotional support and helping child patients reduce pain, which allows for more possibilities of using social humanoid robots to explore serving child patients. This research aims to develop an effective solution to entertain and comfort child patients who have been negatively impacted by the threatened and declining social care sector. The researchers introduced a new design of the robot - Iva: a playful humanoid robot with educational flare for little patients. Iva is based on the NAO robot's hardware and equipped with various sensors and abilities, such as tactile sensors, facial detection and speech and object recognition, enabling it to interact with children through interactive activities. Iva can perform conversation, games, shows, exercises and more activities, based on the thinking of the child patients' needs and preferences, forms of expression and programming workflow. The whole process emphasised user friendliness and ethical considerations, including data privacy and informed consent. The design, development and testing have been conducted in the novel EUREKA Tokku Zone to ensure ethical integrity. Preliminary testing in a laboratory setting shows all the functions of Iva work correctly for providing multiple interesting activities to let child patients play and relax. In terms of Iva's performance, she is a meaningful robot that contributes to a more positive and supportive environment for children during hospitalisation. Future work contains improvements of Iva's program for a more accessible experience, and the test in the real hospital setting within the Tokku Zones in Wales.

Cleft lip and palate (CLP) is a congenital anomaly that can have detrimental effects on an individual's ability to produce certain sounds, including bilabial sounds such as/m/ and alveolar sounds such as/п/, as well as sounds that require closure between the nasal and oral cavities, such as sounds ending in /-In/. While surgical intervention can assist in correcting anatomical irregularities, consistent speech and language therapy sessions are often necessary to overcome obstacles associated with speech production. The research problem addressed in this study is the interruption of regular therapy, as evidenced by the discontinuation of services during the COVID-19 pandemic, which can lead to setbacks in progress and an increase in the risk of developmental delays in children. To explore the potential of educational robots to address this problem, this paper (i) investigates the user requirements, usability considerations, and attitudes to speech therapy robots, from the perspective of parents and carers of children with CLP, (ii) presents an experimental prototype for CLP language education and speech therapy using a humanoid robot, named Robot Lily, based on input from prospective users; and (iii) evaluates the prototype Robot Lily on a subject with CLP. The robot has been programmed to interact with the child in a naturalistic manner, using the same language and gestures employed by human speech and language therapists. The robot can respond to inquiries, practice articulation and pronunciation, aid the child with speech fluency, provide feedback, and encourage continued speech exercises. The primary interactions between a child with CLP and Robot Lily were observed and evaluated, with the robot shown to provide a unique opportunity to acquire speech and language abilities in a captivating and interactive manner. Compared to web-based applications, speech education assistant robots like Robot Lily may offer children a more appealing, engaging, and practical solution; and be remotely controlled by humans for specialized interventions at home, thereby circumventing the challenges encountered during COVID-19. These findings and methods have been used to develop an integrated model for ethical robotic speech therapy utilizing machine learning, which is expected to help meet the growing demand for speech therapy services.