On the QT

Dr Barbara Sandland (MEd Special Education: Autism, 2017; PhD Education, 2021) and Dr Rebecca Bartram (PhD Education, 2024), working under the expert guidance of Professor Karen Guldberg (MEd Special Education: Autism, 2000; PhD Education, 2008), Professor of Autism Studies and Head of the School of Education, are leading the world’s first large-scale, long-term study to explore how a humanoid robot – called QTrobot – can support early development for young autistic children at home.

In partnership with QT’s creator LuxAI and the Luxembourg Institute of Health, the project invited volunteer families in the West Midlands to use the robot at home over a ten-month period for a range of learning activities with their pre-school children.

The activities focus on early learning, language and social-emotional skills, with interactive games set at a level that matches each child’s needs.

The aim is firstly to assess the impact on the autistic child’s educational development and secondly to see if parents can be supported to develop greater confidence in their knowledge and skills to support their child appropriately.

While the results of the study are still to be finalised, anecdotes from those taking part have provided some heartwarming stories.

Barbara says: ‘One of my first home visits was to see one little boy who was completely non-verbal. I set up the robot, turned it on to say “hello” and the boy responded: “Hello.” His mum just welled up – he had never said hello before. That was really moving.

‘We’ve built such a good relationship with the parents. They ring us up to tell us things, or send us pictures of QT dressed up by their children. We are very much sharing in their journey and they’re quite willing and enthusiastic about having someone to talk to about life with an autistic child.’

For parents Jenny and Andy, QTrobot has provided tangible improvements to their son Robin’s development after a stressful two years on the autism diagnosis pathway. He finally received his diagnosis in March 2026.

Robin is a Gestalt Language Processor, learning language by starting with whole phrases or sentence she has heard or read, rather than single words. Over time, he breaks the phrases down into smaller parts to create his own sentences, which can make a traditional learning environment more challenging.

QTrobot has given him lots of example phrases to use in everyday life, like ‘Let’s play more’ and ‘Hello, my name isQTrobot’, which Robin is able to imitate.

Jenny recalls: ‘At Robin’s two-year health check, concerns were raised about his development. We had a home appointment with a health visitor, who told me that she thought Robin was displaying many autistic traits.‘

Our journey as a family since then has been tough at times as we have come to terms with what this means for his future and ours.

‘We have had to be strong advocates for his needs and as the people who know him best, it has been frustrating to find yourself filling in yet another form to try to access support.

‘Taking part in the QTrobot study was a chance for us to take direct ownership of something with no medical professionals involved.

‘Robin has demonstrated an awareness of things we didn’t realise he knew, and we’ve been shown new ways to teach concepts that we were really struggling with, like recognising sounds outside like birdsong, emergency vehicle sirens or a dog barking.’