International Journal of School Health

“Can You Cure me? Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders Playing a Doctor Game With a Social Robot”

Document Type : Research Article (s)

Authors

Ramona Simut 1
Cristina A. Costescu 2
Johan Vanderfaeillie 1
Greet van de Perre 3
Bram Vanderborght 3
Dirk Lefeber 3

1 Clinical and Life Span Psychology Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium

2 Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania

3 Multibody Mechanics and Robotics Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium

https://doi.org/10.17795/intjsh-29584
Abstract
Background: Social robots may represent an important technological instrument for improving the social abilities of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
Objectives: This work describes exploratory research in which a doctor game scenario, involving a social robot and a human partner, was implemented and tested with children with ASD.
Patients and Methods: Thirty children between the ages of four and eight who had been diagnosed with ASD were included in this study. The children alternated between playing a doctor game with the social robot Probo and playing the same game with a human partner, and were exposed to each condition only once in a counter-balanced order. The symbolic play task and the experimental setup were designed to test whether the children would engage in more collaborative behaviors while playing the doctor game with a social robot than performing the same activities with the human partner.
Results: Although the children with ASD were more interested in and entertained by the robotic partner, the children did not have better performance in the game, and did not show significantly more collaborative play and engagement while playing with the social robot, compared with the human partner.
Conclusions: A longer and more thorough study is needed to interpret these findings and better understand the ASD child-robot interaction. This paper concludes with a discussion of the related literature and proposals for future research directions.

Keywords

Robot
Assisted Therapy
Autism spectrum disorders
Social Robot
Symbolic Play
Collaborative Play
International Journal of School Health
Volume 3, Issue 3
Summer 2016
Pages 1-9

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