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Predictable Robots for Autistic Children—Variance in Robot Behaviour, Idiosyncrasies in Autistic Children’s Characteristics, and Child–Robot Engagement

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), Volume 28, Issue 5

Article No.: 36, Pages 1 - 42

https://doi.org/10.1145/3468849

Published: 20 August 2021 Publication History

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Abstract

Predictability is important to autistic individuals, and robots have been suggested to meet this need as they can be programmed to be predictable, as well as elicit social interaction. The effectiveness of robot-assisted interventions designed for social skill learning presumably depends on the interplay between robot predictability, engagement in learning, and the individual differences between different autistic children. To better understand this interplay, we report on a study where 24 autistic children participated in a robot-assisted intervention. We manipulated the variance in the robot’s behaviour as a way to vary predictability, and measured the children’s behavioural engagement, visual attention, as well as their individual factors. We found that the children will continue engaging in the activity behaviourally, but may start to pay less visual attention over time to activity-relevant locations when the robot is less predictable. Instead, they increasingly start to look away from the activity. Ultimately, this could negatively influence learning, in particular for tasks with a visual component. Furthermore, severity of autistic features and expressive language ability had a significant impact on behavioural engagement. We consider our results as preliminary evidence that robot predictability is an important factor for keeping children in a state where learning can occur.

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction Volume 28, Issue 5

October 2021

308 pages

ISSN:1073-0516

EISSN:1557-7325

DOI:10.1145/3481685

Editor:
Kristina Höök
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

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Copyright © 2021 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 20 August 2021

Accepted: 01 May 2021

Revised: 01 March 2021

Received: 01 November 2020

Published in TOCHI Volume 28, Issue 5

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Cited By

Dubois-Sage MJacquet BJamet FBaratgin J(2024)People with Autism Spectrum Disorder Could Interact More Easily with a Robot than with a Human: Reasons and LimitsBehavioral Sciences10.3390/bs1402013114:2(131)Online publication date: 12-Feb-2024
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Vagnetti RDi Nuovo AMazza MValenti M(2024)Social Robots: A Promising Tool to Support People with Autism. A Systematic Review of Recent Research and Critical Analysis from the Clinical PerspectiveReview Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders10.1007/s40489-024-00434-5Online publication date: 29-Feb-2024
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Janssen SSchadenberg B(2024)A Psychological Need-Fulfillment Perspective for Designing Social Robots that Support Well-BeingInternational Journal of Social Robotics10.1007/s12369-024-01102-816:5(857-878)Online publication date: 25-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-024-01102-8
Mondellini MPrajod PLavit Nicora MChiappini MMicheletti EStorm FVertechy RAndré EMalosio M(2023)Behavioral patterns in robotic collaborative assembly: comparing neurotypical and Autism Spectrum Disorder participantsFrontiers in Psychology10.3389/fpsyg.2023.124585714Online publication date: 26-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1245857
Zhang KJin YChen JDai YZhang Y(2023) Robot intervention in social skills of children with autism: a review of the latest three years * 2023 International Conference on Intelligent Education and Intelligent Research (IEIR)10.1109/IEIR59294.2023.10391214(1-8)Online publication date: 5-Nov-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/IEIR59294.2023.10391214
Milling MBaird ABartl-Pokorny KLiu SAlcorn AShen JTavassoli TAinger EPellicano EPantic MCummins NSchuller B(2022)Evaluating the Impact of Voice Activity Detection on Speech Emotion Recognition for Autistic ChildrenFrontiers in Computer Science10.3389/fcomp.2022.8372694Online publication date: 9-Feb-2022
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2022.837269
Sandygulova AAmirova ATelisheva ZZhanatkyzy ARakhymbayeva N(2022)Individual Differences of Children with Autism in Robot-assisted Autism Therapy2022 17th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)10.1109/HRI53351.2022.9889537(43-52)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2022
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Lin JLi JShe YLin LWu HZhang ELei JHuang WLi J(2022)Using a social robot for children with autism: A therapist‐robot interactive modelComputer Animation and Virtual Worlds10.1002/cav.210933:5Online publication date: 22-Aug-2022
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Schadenberg BReidsma DHeylen DEvers V(2021)User Requirements for Developing Robot-Assisted Interventions for Autistic ChildrenSocial Robotics10.1007/978-3-030-90525-5_55(629-639)Online publication date: 10-Nov-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-030-90525-5_55

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