Abstract
Robots are promising tools for promoting engagement of autistic children in interventions and thereby increasing the amount of learning opportunities. However, designing deliberate robot behavior aimed at engaging autistic children remains challenging. Our current understanding of what interactions with a robot, or facilitated by a robot, are particularly motivating to autistic children is limited to qualitative reports with small sample sizes. Translating insights from these reports to design is difficult due to the large individual differences among autistic children in their needs, interests, and abilities. To address these issues, we conducted a descriptive study and report on an analysis of how 31 autistic children spontaneously interacted with a humanoid robot and an adult within the context of a robot-assisted intervention, as well as which individual characteristics were associated with the observed interactions. For this analysis, we used video recordings of autistic children engaged in a robot-assisted intervention that were recorded as part of the DE-ENIGMA database. The results showed that the autistic children frequently engaged in exploratory and functional interactions with the robot spontaneously, as well as in interactions with the adult that were elicited by the robot. In particular, we observed autistic children frequently initiating interactions aimed at making the robot do a certain action. Autistic children with stronger language ability, social functioning, and fewer autism spectrum-related symptoms, initiated more functional interactions with the robot and more robot-elicited interactions with the adult. We conclude that the children's individual characteristics, in particular the child's language ability, can be indicative of which types of interaction they are more likely to find interesting. Taking these into account for the design of deliberate robot behavior, coupled with providing more autonomy over the robot's behavior to the autistic children, appears promising for promoting engagement and facilitating more learning opportunities.
Highlights
Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that affects the way an individual interacts with others and experiences the surrounding world
The other three autistic children participated in the robot-assisted intervention, but did not consent for their recordings to be included in the database; they can only be used for studies within the DE-ENIGMA consortium
We investigated what types of interaction autistic children spontaneously engage in within a robot-assisted intervention setting, and how these types of interaction relate to the individual characteristics of the autistic children
Summary
Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that affects the way an individual interacts with others and experiences the surrounding world. Researchers are studying whether such interventions can be enhanced through the use of robots Studies on such robotassisted interventions for autistic children often report that the robot has a positive effect on the child’s engagement (Scassellati et al, 2012; Simut et al, 2016). Robots could deliver “on demand” social skill learning, and provide quantified metrics of the child that can be used by an adult to further tailor the learning content to the child (Scassellati, 2007) In all these projects, researchers leverage welldesigned interactive tasks and fitting robot behaviors to achieve impact with their robot-assisted intervention. An example of this approach is the intervention reported by Huskens et al (2015), where the robot encouraged an autistic child and that child’s sibling to cooperate with each other in a Lego construction task
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
