Abstract
Abstract This paper presents a patient-centered interaction design of Robot-Assisted Therapy or Robot-Assisted Play (RAP) applications for children with a diverse form of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) combined with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Through our iterative evaluation process based on observations of fourteen children over several sessions and interviews with their parents, we continuously refined the behaviors of a humanoid robot NAO that are now ready to be used for research on Robot-Assisted Therapy. This paper also reports the design of RAP methodology that might be helpful in assimilating iterative input from stakeholders such as children, parents and therapists to customize technology for other populations with special needs.
Highlights
A number of recent large-scale interdisciplinary projects, such as DREAM [1], AuRoRa [2] and SAR [3], have exploredA critical review by Diehl et al [4] examined empirically based evidence on the clinical applications of robots in treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and concluded that most studies are exploratory and have methodological limitations that make it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the clinical utility of robots, e.g. [5].This research is motivated by the challenges of conducting generalizable research considering diverse forms of ASD and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
This paper presents a patient-centered interaction design of Robot-Assisted Therapy or Robot-Assisted Play (RAP) applications for children with a diverse form of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) combined with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Through our iterative evaluation process based on observations of fourteen children over several sessions and interviews with their parents, we continuously refined the behaviors of a humanoid robot NAO that are ready to be used for research on Robot-Assisted Therapy
Summary
A number of recent large-scale interdisciplinary projects, such as DREAM [1], AuRoRa [2] and SAR [3], have exploredA critical review by Diehl et al [4] examined empirically based evidence on the clinical applications of robots in treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and concluded that most studies are exploratory and have methodological limitations that make it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the clinical utility of robots, e.g. [5].This research is motivated by the challenges of conducting generalizable research considering diverse forms of ASD and ADHD. Due to a large spectrum of individual nuances, heterogeneous behavioral issues and conditions present in ASD and ADHD children, this ongoing research aims to customize research processes for them. With a goal of a large-scale deployment of RAP as an additional kind of therapy, this research aims for autonomy and generalization at the same time. To this end, this paper reports two phases of our iterative interaction design that were conducted with a two-fold purpose: 1) to evaluate robotic applications, and, mainly, 2) to evaluate the proposed methodology for the RAP research. Once there is a clear and rigorous methodology with reliable and fastto-deploy robots, this methodology could be used to investigate whether RAP is effective for ASD children with statistically supported evidences
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