A center using robots to treat children with infantile autism commenced operations at Harbin Children’s Hospital on Sept 12, making it the first of its type in China.

A forum for curing infantile autism was also held at the hospital the same day.

Autism is a neural disorder that impairs sufferers' communication skills and social interactions. Sufferers have restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. It affects about one in every 68 children in the United States and the number is rising all the time.

The situation in China is not thought to be any better, although there are no details of the number of children impacted by the condition.

“We are in urgent need of finding ways to treat autism,” said Yang Guangxue, director of the Autism Research Center at East China Normal University.

“It is estimated that the number of children suffering from autism will double and double again in the next few years,” Yang added.

To satisfy the need for the increasing demand for autism treatment, a robot called RoBoHoN was jointly developed by Harbin Children’s Hospital and Shanghai Dianyi Computer Technology Co to assist doctors and parents to help rehabilitate children with autism.

Compared with other robots, RoBoHoN is about 0.33-meters long and is in the shape of a cartoon character. The robot also speaks with a child-like voice to help it better engage with young patients.

RoBoHoN will track a child’s health, remind children to take medicines, provide comfort to children when they are lonely, and send children’s medical data to doctors. Children will also have access to long-distance medical consultations through RoBoHoN.

RoBoHoN is expected to improve doctors’ diagnosis and evaluation of autism sufferers. It also plays an important role in improving treatment by encouraging children to speak out, as the previous one-to-one training methods cost a lot of time and money.

It is said that the technology used in a RoBoHoN robot will be widely used in sectors such as online medical treatment.

Currently, RoBoHoN is being used by Harbin Children’s Hospital; and children diagnosed with autism can apply for one RoBoHoN robot when they leave hospital. The cost of a RoBoHoN robot is 19.9 yuan ($3.09) per day.

 The opening ceremony of a center using robots to treat childhood autism is held at Harbin Children’s Hospital on Sept 12. [Photo/Provided to China Daily]

A doctor at Harbin Children’s Hospital gives a present to a boy on Sept 12.[Photo/Provided to China Daily]

Children play with RoBoHoN robots at Harbin Children’s Hospital on Sept 12. [Photo/MY399.COM]