EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS ON THE PREVENTION OF MENTAL DISORDERS IN THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
Educational Robotics, Mental Disorder Prevention, Mental Health
In this work, we propose to study and verify the potential of using Educational Robotics in the classroom to improve cognitive functions and at the same time act in the prevention of the occurrence of mental disorders, a problem that has hindered the socio-cultural development of many young people today. It is worth mentioning that there are studies verifying the effectiveness of Educational Robotics with children and adolescents in order to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of the autistic spectrum and in visual impairment, but we do not find in the literature a study similar to the one proposed in this work. Furthermore, it is already demonstrated in the literature that Educational Robotics improves the child's cognitive functions and also their and teachers' self-esteem. During the work, from the analysis of collected data, we were able to verify strong indications that children and adolescents who take educational robotics classes are less susceptible to major problems of depression, stress, among other types of mental disorders. To reach this inference, we developed and applied questionnaires for teachers and students, from which variables were determined to be analyzed, such as psychomotor, cognitive and affective. The questionnaires were applied in the practical phase of the Brazilian Robotics Olympiad that took place at the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil. These data were submitted to an analysis and later verification through qualitative and quantitative methodologies on the educational robotics tool used.