Special Olympics robotics competition offers pupils crucial social lifeline

A Special Olympics UAE robotics competition offered children a crucial social lifeline during remote learning.

A total of 375 pupils from 44 schools took part in The Unified Robotics 2021 Competition that challenged pupils with and without intellectual disabilities to work together to programme a robot.

The opportunity for collaboration and camaraderie proved just as important as learning new skills.

For Adam Al Tanani, 10, a British pupil in Abu Dhabi, online meetings with his four-member team to code and programme a robot’s movements were the highlight of his week.

Adam, a Year 6 pupil at The British School Al Khubairat, is on the autism spectrum and spent much of 2020 studying remotely because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Getting to know new people was the best part [of this competition],” Adam said.

“I loved meeting and interacting with my team and enjoyed the process of preparing for the competition.”

The team got together at a cafe in Abu Dhabi before the contest.

“On the final day we had to code through challenges that were very hard, but we did it,” he said.

The Unified Robotics competition is the largest event for neurodiverse pupils in the UAE.

Children in the 8-11 age group competed on March 13, with secondary school-age pupils going head to head last Saturday.

An online awards ceremony will be held on April 17, when category winners will be announced.

Deborah Specter from the UK, a parent-chairwoman of the Special Olympics UAE, and mother of a child on the autism spectrum, said her son had “thoroughly enjoyed” being part of the programme.

“This provided him with a platform to engage and socially interact with his classmates,” said Ms Specter, whose son Joshua, a Year 6 pupil at Repton School Abu Dhabi, took part in the competition.

Joshua had weekly online meetings with his team where they coded together.

“He loved this and his face was always beaming with happiness when he recounted the time spent,” said Ms Specter.

Some children on the autism spectrum showed a great aptitude for Stem subjects – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – and were able to make valuable contributions.

A 2013 study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital found that children with autism and average IQs had superior maths skills compared with pupils with similar IQs who did not have autism.

Richard Mackay, homeroom teacher and information technology coach at Mubarak bin Mohammed Charter School in Abu Dhabi, said their team used 15 minutes in every session to play virtual bingo and Simon Says.

The four-member team, aged between 8 and 11, met online every week and enjoyed coding together, while sharing their interest in the UAE’s Mars mission.

“I believe teams that play together stay together, and the growth in the team has been phenomenal,” Mr Mackay said.

Lisa Watson, head of inclusion at Repton Abu Dhabi, said the Covid-19 pandemic had caused some restrictions to learning.

“We did a lot of sessions over Zoom until we got back to face-to-face learning,” Ms Watson said.

“The pupils loved this as it helped them to collaborate with their peers and it was good for them to get some social interaction.”

I loved meeting and interacting with my team and enjoyed the process of preparing for the competition ADAM AL TANANI Pupil, The British School Al Khubairat