That STEAM touch that changed research
There are stories whose implications far exceed our imagination. Stories that are incredible and that fill the heart with joy. Today we'll tell you about one.
The year was 2016: the Tata on the train, headed to Nuremberg to participate in the Toy Fair (Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair Nürnberg), one of the largest and most important in the world for designers, traders and manufacturers of toys (did you know thatTata is also Toy Designer?). She was calmly reading and daydreaming in her little corner, when a distinguished and kind lady got on the train and sat right next to her. “She's probably a doctor,” he thought.
Time passed slowly, so the two started talking about this and that: the Nanny told her about her business and her amazing adventures between science and creativity, showing her photos and videos of her laboratories, while the doctor listened to her spellbound . When he showed her a video of the Bare Conductive panel (the special conductive ink), the doctor lit up and finally revealed her identity: it was not a doctor, but a... Greek professor!
He worked at the University of Macedonia, in distant Thessaloniki, with a group of neuroscientists on children with cognitive difficulties, particularly in naming and memorizing names. In practice, his patients have difficulty remembering nouns and words of things and people, therefore experiencing enormous difficulties in communication: imagine having to ask for a glass of water and not remembering the term that indicates the object "glass". The only way for them to overcome this deficit is to exercise regularly, stimulating visual and auditory memory, through the use of sounds and images to be repeated numerous times.
What caught the professor's attention was therefore the possibility of building a work tool that would allow her patients to listen to the sound associated with the various products as many times as they needed: conductive ink offered magnificent new opportunities, the possibility of making a change in the method of rehabilitation of these children. All this thanks to a chance meeting on a train headed to Nuremberg. When it comes to destiny…
Well, it might seem like a beautiful story with a happy ending and in fact it is: the professor in question is Hariklia Proios, Assistant Professor of Neurocognitive Disorders and Rehabilitation of the Department of Educational and Social Policies of the University of Macedonia. Together with her colleague, Foteini Dergianli, Postgraduate student of Educational and Social Policy Department, she developed a panel for an important new research published a few weeks ago in the journal < a href="www.encephalos.gr/pdf/55-4-03e.pdf" target="_blank">Encephalos< /span>. The researchers have in fact managed to combine images and sounds through the use of conductive ink: by pressing on one of the figures, the interactive "talking" panel pronounces the name corresponding to the object, thus allowing the patient to associate shape and sound, repeat the word and memorize it more easily.
The panel was tested on 24 patients with neurological difficulties and on a control group made up of 21 students with learning difficulties from a local primary school. The research included a test with the panel (built with the Bare Conductive Starter Kit< /strong>, thanks to the help of Tata) and one in traditional mode.
After various tests carried out by the research group, it was possible to demonstrate that in fact the patients' performances significantly improved with the help of sounds!
“From the results it can be clearly seen that patients make more errors without auditory sound cue than with it. From the statistical analysis emerged that this difference is statistically significant (t(22)=-8.068, p=0.000<0.05). Therefore, we can conclude that auditory sound cues contribute to improving the patients' ability in naming pictures. The positive contribution of auditory sound cues to the improvement of patients' ability in naming pictures is the most important finding. This has and implications can be used as a starting point in naming difficulties treatment programs”.
“From the results it can be clearly seen thatpatients make more errors without sounds than with them. From the statistical analysis it emerged that thisdifference is statistically significant(t(22)=-8.068, p=0.000<0.05). Therefore, we can conclude that sounds contribute to improving patients' ability to name images. This has interesting implications and can be used as astarting point in treatment programs for naming difficulties.”
In short, what should have been a long and solitary journey in the German valleys turned into a wonderful opportunity to help children in difficulty: the union of technical-scientific and artistic skills allowed us to take a step forward in the rehabilitation of these patients and Tata can only say she is proud and happy. Her heartfelt thanks go to Hariklia and Foteini for not only listening to her, but also following and citing her in their research.
Until the next adventure!