如何通過精讀提高雅思閱讀分數

陳鈴1147由分享時間：2020-09-02 01:00:11

在雅思閱讀考試中，精讀全篇文章是不現實的，因為時間有限，但是為什么還要提倡雅思閱讀備考的精讀訓練呢?今天小編給大家?guī)砹巳绾瓮ㄟ^精讀提高雅思閱讀分數希望能夠幫助到大家，下面小編就和大家分享，來欣賞一下吧。

雅思閱讀備考丨如何通過精讀提高雅思閱讀分數

雅思閱讀備考中精讀的好處

提升詞匯知識，包括學科核心生詞，同義詞替換等;

掌握更多句法，學會分解讀懂長難句;

學習文章結構，提高雅思寫作水平。

總之，精讀文章是放長線釣大魚，堅持下去，會實現詞匯、句法上的突破，提升閱讀成績以及寫作水平。

具體怎么精讀?

在精讀前，大家要準備好劍橋真題、鉛筆、熒光筆、筆記本等工具，然后按照詞匯、句子、篇章、題目的順序依次進行分析。

詞匯：實在不認識就蒙+猜，

對很多考鴨來說，雅思閱讀中最大的bug莫過于生詞太多，所以大家首先要突破生詞障礙，才能讀下去。大家可以將不認識的詞，用熒光筆標注序號并整理到單詞本中。

那么問題來了，

是不是逢生詞必查?

查詞是不是只需要記住意思?

除了生詞，還需要記什么?

1.查清楚并掌握生詞是必要的，但首先要猜詞，因為真正的考試中不允許帶字典等其他工具。那么怎么猜詞?

大家可以通過上下文的時態(tài)、邏輯關系或詞根詞綴猜測出生詞的意思。

如劍4,Test1,Passage1：

Many studies have shown that children harbor misconceptions about 'pure' curriculum science.These misconceptions do not remain isolated but become incorporated into a multifaceted,

but organized, conceptual framework,making it and the

component ideas,some of which are erroneous, more robust

but also accessible to modification.

如果你不認識這一段中的multifaceted一詞，那么我們可以聯系上下文猜測它的意思，我們看到前面提到這些誤解不是isolated ，再通過but這個轉折，可以判斷multifaceted應該是與isolated (單獨的)相反的意思，并且multi-是一個前綴，表示 “多”的意思，所以可以猜出multifaceted是“多層面”的意思。

然而，并不是每個生詞都需要記?。?/p>

如果因為不認識某個詞就看不懂這句話，那一定要查并記住這個詞;

如果一個生詞并不影響你理解這句話，那就根據時間安排選擇是否識別記憶這個詞，不需要死記硬背。

2.中國考鴨習慣記生詞只記其對應的中文意思，但如果你想真正地掌握這個詞，就應該掌握它的具體用法包括搭配，尤其是動詞，從而將來能靈活運用到寫作中去。

3.除了記生詞外，我們還要積累文中出現的同義詞。同義替換是雅思閱讀的考察重點和出題點，另外大家也可以借鑒到雅思寫作中去，別忘了詞語多樣性是寫作評分標準之一哦!

4.在精讀幾篇同類文章后，如生物類文章，將其中學科核心詞匯整理到一起，以后再遇到生物類的文章，就能夠快速讀懂。

句子：雅思閱讀中存在很多長難句，許多烤鴨經常是云里霧里，搞不清楚句子中誰是什么成分、誰在修飾誰，分分鐘被繞暈。

但對于長難句，我們不需要抽絲剝繭，只需要簡單粗暴地抓主干，切割主謂賓，即搞清楚：誰，做了什么。在三個成分中，謂語最好找，一般就是動詞詞組構成。

篇章：這是玩套路的Part!

我們要從宏觀角度弄清文章段落邏輯，這個文章怎么就長成這個樣子?

搞清楚每個段落的大意及主題句，文章段落間的邏輯關系(劃出邏輯標志詞)，文章整體結構是如何展開的，通過分析，你就會發(fā)現雅思閱讀文章“套路”滿滿!

套路一：讀頭讀尾，找出每段中心句!

以劍4,Test1,Passage1為例：

Many studies have shown that children harbor misconceptions about'pure' curriculum science. These misconceptions do not remain isolated but become incorporated into a multifaceted, but organized, conceptual framework, making it and the component ideas,some of which are erroneous, more robust but also accessible to modification. These ideas may be developed by children absorbing ideas through the popular media. Sometimes this information may be erroneous. It seems schools may not be providing an opportunity for children to re-express their ideas and so have them tested and refined by teachers and their peers.

這一段的首句為主題句，下面的內容是具體展開的闡述。

套路二：雅思閱讀一身學術范兒，文章也是有模板!

雅思閱讀的學術性特點限制著文章結構必須符合一定的學術規(guī)范，所以文章層次結構相對固定。

根據劍橋真題系列，學術類閱讀大致可分為兩類：說明文和議論文。該表格對雅思閱讀兩種類型的文章結構做了簡單分析(大家參考一下)：

我們以說明文為例，開頭段一般是引出主題介紹現象、概念或陳述事實，所以多用敘述描寫性語言;主體段對事物細節(jié)展開描述，各種話題可通過三種不同方式展開，包括時間順序、并列或遞進(從各個側面來介紹)、邏輯發(fā)展順序，最后結尾段說明問題接下來會怎么發(fā)展，進行總結。

掌握這兩個套路，我們就能抓住每段的主旨，了解文章的段落布局，那么在解決雅思兩大超難題型---list of headings和段落信息匹配就能較快地定位到答案處。

題目：一切不以做對題拿到分為目的的精讀都是耍流氓!所以對于題目的精讀是重中之重!

細讀題目具體操作：

1.看清題目要求

如遇到判斷題，考生要看清題目要求答案需要寫的是true or false or not given還是yes or no or not given，如果該寫TF卻寫成Yes或No,是會扣分的。

2.讀懂題干指示

有的題目已經明確給出答案所在的范圍或者相關提示語和關鍵詞，所以大家要根據題干指示，快速地定位到文中答案處。

3.總結同義替換

將題目中的詞匯與在文章中所對應的替換點全部找出來，并記在筆記本上，不斷積累復習。

但你也不要忘了

雅思閱讀注意事項

1.靠多刷題來提高閱讀不如踏下心來好好精讀分析劍橋真題，要善于總結，總結段落大意、文章結構的開展、答案出現的地方等。

2.真正的雅思考試中需要你快速地處理問題，所以在平時閱讀練習中要快慢結合，詳略得當，略讀和掃讀(skimming & scanning)以及精讀配合使用，快準狠地找到關鍵信息。

3.一味地死背單詞是沒用的，對于生詞要靈活掌握，因為閱讀中的題目往往是文章內容的同義替換，并不是個別詞的明顯對應，所以你不僅要掌握一個生詞的同義詞，還要掌握同類詞和相似表達等。

4、詞法知識基本功要扎實，斷句劃分句子結構是需要掌握一定詞法知識的，否則在讀到復雜的句子抓主干時就會很吃力，想提高填空題正確率也更困難。

雅思閱讀每日一練：科技和教育引領終身學習

It is easy to say that people need to keep learning throughout their careers. The practicalities are daunting

WHEN education fails to keep pace with technology, the result is inequality. Without the skills to stay useful as innovations arrive, workers suffer—and if enough of them fall behind, society starts to fall apart. That fundamental insight seized reformers in the Industrial revolution, heralding state-funded universal schooling. Later, automation in factories and offices called forth a surge in college graduates. The combination of education and innovation, spread over decades, led to a remarkable flowering of prosperity.

當教育跟不上技術進步時，就會造成不平等。在創(chuàng)新到來之際，工人如果沒有技能使自己對雇主仍然“有用”，他們就會遭殃。而如果落后的工人太多，社會就開始崩塌。這一根本性的洞見極大影響了工業(yè)革命時期的改革者，推動了國家資助全民教育的普及。后來，工廠和辦公室自動化又引發(fā)了大學生人數猛增。教育和創(chuàng)新相輔相成，歷經數十年，令繁榮之花耀眼綻放。

雅思閱讀高頻詞匯：

keep pace with 跟上

innovations 創(chuàng)新

fall behind 落后

Industrial Revolution 工業(yè)革命

surge 飆升

prosperity 繁榮

Today robotics and artificial intelligence call for another education revolution. This time, however, working lives are so lengthy and so fast-changing that simply cramming more schooling in at the start is not enough. People must also be able to acquire new skills throughout their careers.

Unfortunately, as our special report in this issue sets out, the lifelong learning that exists today mainly benefits high achievers—and is therefore more likely to exacerbate inequality than diminish it. If 21st-century economies are not to create a massive underclass, policymakers urgently need to work out how to help all their citizens learn while they earn. So far, their ambition has fallen pitifully short.

今天，機器人和人工智能呼喚又一場教育革命。而這一次，工作生涯如此漫長而又變化迅速，只在人生初期強加更多教育已經不足以應付。人們還必須能在整個職業(yè)生涯中獲取新技能。

不幸的是，正如我們本期特別報道所述，目前的終身學習主要是令成功人士受益，因此更可能加劇而非減輕不平等。如果21世紀的經濟體不想要產生一個龐大的底層階級，政策制定者亟需制定措施，幫助國民在謀生的同時學習。而迄今為止，他們的抱負還小得可憐。

雅思閱讀高頻詞匯：

artificial intelligence 人工智能

underclass 下層階級

policymaker 政策制定者

Machines or learning 機器或學習

The classic model of education—a burst at the start and top-ups through company training—is breaking down. One reason is the need for new, and constantly updated, skills. Manufacturing increasingly calls for brain work rather than metal-bashing. The share of the American workforce employed in routine office jobs declined from 25.5% to 21% between 1996 and 2015. The single, stable career has gone the way of the Rolodex.

Pushing people into ever-higher levels of formal education at the start of their lives is not the way to cope. Just 16% of Americans think that a four-year college degree prepares students very well for a good job. Although a vocational education promises that vital first hire, those with specialised training tend to withdraw from the labor force earlier than those with general education—perhaps because they are less adaptable.

機器還是學習

在青少年時強化學習，之后通過公司培訓加以補充，這種傳統的教育模式正在失效。原因之一是需要新的技能，而且還要不斷更新。制造業(yè)越來越多地需要腦力而非蠻力。從1996年到2015年，常規(guī)辦公職位在美國勞動力中所占的比例從25.5%下降到21%。單一穩(wěn)定的職業(yè)生涯已經像旋轉式名片夾一樣一去不返了。

在人生初期讓人們接受更高程度的正規(guī)教育并非解決之道。僅有16%的美國人認為四年的大學教育足以讓學生找到一份好工作。盡管職業(yè)教育能確保找到至關重要的第一份工作，但接受專門培訓的人往往比接受普通教育的人更早退出勞動大軍，可能是因為前者適應性較弱。

雅思閱讀高頻詞匯：

top-ups 充值

brain work 大腦的工作

withdraw 撤回

general education 通識教育

At the same time on-the-job training is shrinking. In America and Britain it has fallen by roughly half in the past two decades. Self-employment is spreading, leaving more people to take responsibility for their own skills. Taking time out later in life to pursue a formal qualification is an option, but it costs money and most colleges are geared towards youngsters.

The market is innovating to enable workers to learn and earn in new ways. Providers from General Assembly to Pluralsight are building businesses on the promise of boosting and rebooting careers. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have veered away from lectures on Plato or black holes in favor of courses that make their students more employable. At Udacity and Coursera self-improvers pay for cheap, short programs that bestow “microcredentials” and “nanodegrees” in, say, self-driving cars or the Android operating system. By offering degrees online, universities are making it easier for professionals to burnish their skills. A single master’s program from Georgia Tech could expand the annual output of computer-science master’s degrees in America by close to 10%.

Such efforts demonstrate how to interleave careers and learning. But left to its own devices, this nascent market will mainly serve those who already have advantages. It is easier to learn later in life if you enjoyed the classroom first time around: about 80% of the learners on Coursera already have degrees. Online learning requires some IT literacy, yet one in four adults in the OECD has no or limited experience of computers. Skills atrophy unless they are used, but many low-end jobs give workers little chance to practise them.

與此同時，在職培訓也在萎縮。在美國和英國，在職培訓在過去20年里下降了大概一半。自雇人群正在增多，令更多的人要為自己的技能負責。在年紀較大的時候抽出時間獲得一個正規(guī)的資質是一種選擇，但要投入成本，而且大多數院校是針對年輕人開設的。

市場正在創(chuàng)新以讓工人能夠有新的方法學習和賺錢。從General Assembly到Pluralsight，各類供應商紛紛以推動和重啟職業(yè)生涯的承諾開創(chuàng)業(yè)務。大規(guī)模開放式在線課程(MOOC)不再講授柏拉圖或黑洞，而向幫助學生就業(yè)的課程傾斜。在優(yōu)達學城(Udacity)和Coursera，進修者付費學習低價的短期課程，獲得如自動駕駛汽車或安卓操作系統方面的“微證書”和“納米學位”。

這些革新顯示了如何交織工作和學習。但是，如果任其自行發(fā)展，這一新生市場將會主要服務那些已經具備優(yōu)勢的人。如果你在年輕時就享受課堂學習，那么日后學習起來也會更容易：在Coursera，大約80%的學生已經擁有學位。在線學習需要一些IT知識，而在經合組織國家里，四分之一的成年人沒有或只有很少的計算機經驗。技能不用則退，但在很多低端工作中，工人基本沒有機會實踐技能。

雅思閱讀高頻詞匯：

geare 齒輪

boosting 提高

bestow 給

burnish 光澤

demonstrate 演示

Shampoo technician wanted

If new ways of learning are to help those who need them most, policymakers should be aiming for something far more radical. Because education is a public good whose benefits spill over to all of society, governments have a vital role to play—not just by spending more, but also by spending wisely.

Lifelong learning starts at school. As a rule, education should not be narrowly vocational. The curriculum needs to teach children how to study and think. A focus on “metacognition” will make them better at picking up skills later in life.

But the biggest change is to make adult learning routinely accessible to all. One way is for citizens to receive vouchers that they can use to pay for training. Singapore has such “individual learning accounts”; it has given money to everyone over 25 to spend on any of 500 approved courses. So far each citizen has only a few hundred dollars, but it is early days.

招募洗發(fā)師

如果新的學習方式是要幫助那些最需要幫助的人，那么政策制定者應該尋求遠為根本性的舉措。因為教育是一種公益事業(yè)，其益處會延及整個社會，各國政府要發(fā)揮重要作用——不僅要增加投入，還得把錢花得明智。

終身學習始于學校。一般來說，教育不應該有狹隘的職業(yè)性。學生需要從課程中學會如何學習和思考。注重“元認知”將幫助學生日后更好地學習技能。

但最大的改變是讓所有人都能常態(tài)化地進行成人學習。一個方法是向國民發(fā)放抵用券，可用于支付培訓費用。新加坡就有這樣的“個人學習賬戶”。該國向所有25歲以上的國民提供資金，可用來選擇學習500種經認可的課程。到目前為止，每個國民只領取了幾百美元，但這才剛剛開始。

Courses paid for by taxpayers risk being wasteful. But industry can help by steering people towards the skills it wants and by working with MOOCs and colleges to design courses that are relevant. Companies can also encourage their staff to learn. AT&T, a telecoms firm which wants to equip its workforce with digital skills, spends $30m a year on reimbursing employees’ tuition costs. Trade unions can play a useful role as organizers of lifelong learning, particularly for those—workers in small firms or the self-employed—for whom company-provided training is unlikely. A union-run training program in Britain has support from political parties on the right and left.

由納稅人付費的課程有可能被浪費。但企業(yè)界可以提供幫助，引導人們學習業(yè)界所需的技能，并和MOOC及大學院校合作設計有用的課程。企業(yè)還可以鼓勵員工學習。電信公司AT&T希望員工具備數字技能，它每年支出3000萬美元報銷員工的學費。工會也可以發(fā)揮作用，組織終身學習，尤其是幫助那些小公司的員工或自雇人士，因為這些人不大可能有公費培訓的機會。在英國，一個工會組織的培訓項目同時得到了左右兩派政黨的支持。

To make all this training worthwhile, governments need to slash the licensing requirements and other barriers that make it hard for newcomers to enter occupations. Rather than asking for 300 hours’ practice to qualify to wash hair, for instance, the state of Tennessee should let hairdressers decide for themselves who is the best person to hire.

Not everyone will successfully navigate the shifting jobs market. Those most at risk of technological disruption are men in blue-collar jobs, many of whom reject taking less “masculine” roles in fast-growing areas such as health care. But to keep the numbers of those left behind to a minimum, all adults must have access to flexible, affordable training. The 19th and 20th centuries saw stunning advances in education. That should be the scale of the ambition today.

要讓所有這些培訓有價值，政府需要大力降低執(zhí)業(yè)資格要求以及其他阻礙新人入行的門檻。例如，與其要求有300小時的實習來獲得做洗發(fā)工的資格，田納西州應該讓理發(fā)店自行決定雇誰最好。

并非每個人都能成功應付正在變化的就業(yè)市場。受技術顛覆威脅最大的是那些藍領工人，其中很多人拒絕在醫(yī)療護理等快速發(fā)展的領域里承擔不那么“男子漢”的工作。但是，若要盡量減少因時代改變而落伍的人數，那么所有成年人都必須能夠獲得靈活而又實惠的培訓。在19和20世紀，教育有了令人震驚的進步。今天的抱負應當不遜當年。

2018年4月7日雅思閱讀機經預測

雅思閱讀文章題目：Living with uncertainty

重復年份：20160109A 20140515

雅思閱讀雅思閱讀題材：自然環(huán)境

雅思閱讀雅思閱讀題型：判斷7+簡答6

雅思閱讀文章大意：澳洲的氣候變化無常，所以那里的生物需要很強的應變能力。有一種P鳥可以知道什么地方什么時候下雨，可以提前飛去找水喝。當地人為了狩獵把森林燒掉，另一種要吃salt bush的鳥就因此滅絕了。歐洲人來了之后大量種植wheat，Emu喜歡吃，所以繁殖很快。

部分答案參考：

判斷：

第一種鳥避開下雨的地方。N

簡答：

1.Aboriginal做了什么來方便他們打獵 lit fire

2. G鳥滅絕的原因：salt bush

3. Emu吃wheat

雅思閱讀文章題目：Trade

重復年份：20160109B 20120728

雅思閱讀題材：發(fā)展史

雅思閱讀題型：暫無

雅思閱讀文章大意：貿易的發(fā)展史，講了貿易的人的天性以及各地的貿易發(fā)展水平和狀況。

Basically trade means exchange of goods, services, or both. Trade is also called commerce. The actual face of trade was barter, which was the direct exchange of goods and services. Today traders generally negotiate through a medium of exchange, like money, which then makes buying separate from selling, or earning. The invention of money has made trade simpler. Trade between two traders is called bilateral trade, while trade between more than two traders is called multilateral trade.

Trade exists for many reasons. It can be due to specialization and division of labor. Trade exists between regions because different regions have a comparative advantage in the production of some tradable commodity, or because different regions' size helps getting benefits of mass production.

History of Trade:

Trade originated in prehistoric times. It was the main facility of prehistoric people, who bartered goods and services from each other when modern money was never even thought of. Peter Watson dates the history of long-distance commerce from circa 150,000 years ago.

Trade is believed to have taken place throughout much of recorded human history. Materials used for the creation of jewelry were traded with Egypt since 3000 BC. Long-distance trade routes first appeared in the 3rd millennium BC, by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia when they traded with the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley. Trading is greatly important to the global economy. From the very beginning of Greek civilization to the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, a financially worthwhile trade brought valuable spice to Europe from the Far East, including China.

The fall of the Roman Empire, and the succeeding Dark Ages brought insecurity to Western Europe and a near end of the trade network. However some trade did occur, the Radhanites were a medieval group of Jewish merchants who traded between the Christians in Europe and the Muslims of the Near East.

The Sogdians ruled the East-West trade route known as the Silk Road from the end 4th century AD to the 8th century AD.

The Vikings and Varangians also traded from the 8th to the 11th century as they sailed from and to Scandinavia. Vikings sailed to Western Europe, while Varangians to Russia.

Vasco da Gama restarted the European Spice trade in 1498. Earlier to his sailing around Africa, the flow of spice into Europe was controlled by Islamic powers, especially Egypt. The spice trade was of major economic importance and helped encourage the Age of Exploration. Spices brought to Europe from distant lands were some of the most valuable commodities for their weight, sometimes rivaling gold.

In the 16th century, Holland was the centre of free trade, imposing no exchange controls, and advocating the free movement of goods.

In 1776, Adam Smith published the paper "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations". This paper criticized Mercantilism, and argued that economic specialization could benefit nations just as much as firms. Since that time the division of labor was restricted by the size of the market, he said that countries having access to larger markets would be able to divide labor more efficiently and thereby become more productive.

The Great Depression was a major economic collapse that ran from 1929 to the late 1930s. There was a great setback in trade and other economic indicators during this period.

The lack of free trade was considered by many as a root cause of the depression. Only during the World War II the recession ended in United States.

雅思閱讀文章題目：The history of Russian Ballet

重復年份：20160114 20150418 20121124

雅思閱讀題材：發(fā)展史

雅思閱讀題型：判斷6+填空7

雅思閱讀文章大意：芭蕾舞發(fā)源于意大利，從17世紀后傳入俄國后一直欣欣向榮。出了很多優(yōu)秀的藝術家和作品，外國舞派也對俄國芭蕾舞發(fā)展有著影響。后期以戲劇味發(fā)展主流，一直講到本世紀70年代的發(fā)展。

參考閱讀：

Until 1689, ballet in Russia was nonexistent. The Tsarist control and isolationism in Russia allowed for little influence from the West. It wasn't until the rise of Peter the Great that Russian society opened up to the West. St. Petersburg was erected to embrace the West and compete against Moscow’s isolationism. Peter the Great created a new Russia which rivaled the society of the West with magnificent courts and palaces. His vision was to challenge the west. Classical ballet entered the realm of Russia not as entertainment, but as a “standard of physical comportment to be emulated and internalized-an idealized way of behaving. The aim was not to entertain the masses of Russians, but to create a cultivated and new Russian people.

Empress Anna, (1730 – 1740) was devoted to ostentatious amusements (balls, fireworks, tableaux), and in the summer of 1734 ordered the appointment of Jean-Baptiste Landé as dancing-master in the military academy she had founded in 1731 for sons of the nobility. In 1738, he became ballet master and head of the new ballet school, launching the advanced study of ballet in Russia, and winning the patronage of elite families.

France provided many leaders such as Charles Didelot in St Petersburg (1801-1831), Jules Perrot(1848-1859) and Arthur Saint-Léon (1859-69).

In the early 19th century, the theaters were opened up to anyone who could afford a ticket. A seating section called a rayok, or 'paradise gallery', consisted of simple wooden benches. This allowed non-wealthy people access to the ballet, because tickets in this section were inexpensive.

One author describes the Imperial ballet as “unlike that of any other country in the world…the most prestigious of the ballet troupes were those attached to the state-supported theatres. The directors of these companies were personally appointed by the tsar, and all the dancers were, in a sense, Imperial servants. In the theatre, the men in the audience always remained standing until the tsar entered his box and, out of respect, after the performance they remained in their places until he had departed. Curtain calls were arranged according to a strict pattern: first, the ballerina bowed to the tsar’s box, then to that of the theater director, and finally to the general public.

雅思閱讀文章題目：Aquaculture in New Zealand

重復年份：20160114 20151031 20121124 20110212

雅思閱讀題材：農業(yè)

雅思閱讀題型：小標題7+人名理論配對3+句子填空3

雅思閱讀文章大意：新西蘭水產養(yǎng)殖，介紹了新西蘭一種新型保護海底動物多樣性兼顧商業(yè)運作的方式一aquaculture , 其發(fā)展遇到的問題及前景。

部分參考答案：

小標題

14. vi (一個受益的村莊)

15. vii (company’s profit)

16. 選含 limitation 的那項

17. 選含 concerns to environment 的那項

18. 選含 alternative explanation 的那項

19. 選含 research 的那項

20. 選含 science and business 的那項

填空題

24. polyculture/aquaculture

25. commercial partner

26. market value/high price

雅思閱讀文章題目：Children and robots

重復年份：20160305 20141002

雅思閱讀題材：科技

雅思閱讀題型：小標題5+配對5+填空3

雅思閱讀文章大意：機器人對孩子學習的影響。主要講到把機器人放在學?？梢暂o助老師還有陪學生玩，還可以讓它們擁有表情促進交流，但是過度使用可能會造成倫理問題，此外還提到了幾個科學家和他們的觀點。

參考閱讀：

Robotics is making inroads into society, not only in factories and industry but also in homes and schools, where social robots are helping children cope better with conditions such as diabetes and autism.

A robot and child

Studies show that interaction with a robot can benefit children with certain medical conditions such as diabetes, as well as autism and other developmental disorders. (Image: ALIZ-E project.)

This week, thousands of people – young and old – are exploring the weirdness and wonders of robotics technology during the European Robotics Week, which is taking place in labs, museums, public squares and schools all over Europe.

But robotics offers more than just show and tell. It can make a real difference in the lives of children who, for example, struggle with diabetes or autism, or need extra help in the classroom.

‘Nao’ the friendly (but not perfect) robot

Recently, scientists showed that social robots can help diabetic children accept the nature of their condition and become more confident about their futures. In the four-and-a-half year ALIZ-E project, a research team led by Plymouth University studied the interactions between hundreds of European children aged 7-11 and a robot prototype called ‘Nao’.

Standing around 60 centimetres tall and featuring specially designed speech recognition software, ‘Nao’ helped the youngsters in keeping a diary of food intake, insulin injections and blood sugar levels. Through quizzes and games it also helped the kids to better understand diabetes and the huge amount of information they are given.

According to ALIZ-E leader Tony Belpaeme, the robot is not just a novelty factor to catch the children’s attention but a tool to engage and motivate them. “In many cases where a child has diabetes, you notice their confidence has been knocked and the robot can help restore that. By personalising its responses and recognising the children it has met before, the robots can support and educate, and we have seen many times the positive impact this is having on children and their families,” Belpaeme says in a Plymouth University news release.

The European Commission-funded study has not only shed light on how children relate to social robots, but also how robots need to be designed to maximise their impact when used for educational or therapeutic purposes.

“The robot needs to personalise what it does. If it treats children on an individual level, they immediately relate to it – it taps into our primitive need to interact and communicate,” Belpaeme says in the release. “One of the things that does appeal to children is that the robot makes mistakes – if it never did so, it could become intimidating. It does make the child realise they too don’t have to be perfect all of the time.”

Robots to assist autistic children

The researchers also showed the robots have potential to act as classroom assistants helping pupils who may be in danger of falling behind their peers. The team is now exploring additional uses for the robots, for instance to help children on the autistic spectrum.

“Our initial work shows it could have an incredibly positive impact on those children, and given that autism can impact heavily on someone’s ability to communicate and build relationships, we now need to establish why it seems they can relate to a tiny robot. From that, we can explore how widely we can use the robot as a therapeutic tool and can we, in fact, use it to teach about wider social interactions,” Belpaeme says.

As shown in a number of recent reports by the BBC, there is indeed growing evidence that robots can help autistic children not only to learn but also to improve their communication skills.

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