Using the social robot probo as a social story telling agent for children with ASD

Abstract

This paper aims to study the role of the social robot Probo in providing assistance to a therapist for robot assisted therapy (RAT) with autistic children. Children with autism have difficulties with social interaction and several studies indicate that they show preference toward interaction with objects, such as computers and robots, rather than with humans. In 1991, Carol Gray developed Social Stories, an intervention tool aimed to increase children's social skills. Social stories are short scenarios written or tailored for autistic individuals to help them understand and behave appropriately in social situations. This study shows that, in specific situations, the social performance of autistic children improves when using the robot Probo, as a medium for social story telling, than when a human reader tells the stories. The robot tells Social Stories to teach ASD children how to react in situations like saying "hello", saying "thank you" and "sharing toys". The robot has the capability of expressing emotions and attention via its facial expressions and its gaze. The paper discusses the use of Probo as an added-value therapeutic tool for social story telling and presents the first experimental results

Understanding Agency in Interactions Between ChildrenWith Autism and Socially Assistive Robots

“…One challenge common to all these interventions is maintaining engagement over the many hours of practice they require, particularly given that the interaction may not have any inherent appeal for the child. "The children with autism had been diagnosed using ADI-R and ADOS-G, [...] as high functioning autism" (Pioggia et al, 2007) Kaspar Low; robot is directly controlled by user "a six year old girl with severe autism," "a child with severe autism," "a 16-year old teenager with autism who is not tolerating any other children in any play or other task oriented activities" (Robins, Dautenhahn, & Dickerson, 2009) Keepon Intermediate; robot has a simplified body and simplified social behavior "At CA 1:11 (chronological age of 1 year and 11 months), her mental age (MA) was estimated at 0:10 by Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development", "MA 1:7 at CA 3:1; no apparent language", "MA/cognition 3:2 and MA/language 4:3 at CA 4:6" (Kozima, Nakagawa, & Yasuda, 2007) Nao Intermediate to high; robot speaks, blinks eyes, and plays a song game (Shamsuddin et al, 2012), or robot imitates child behavior (Tapus et al, 2012) "K can be classified as having high-functioning autism" (Shamsuddin et al, 2012); "cognitive abilities are equivalent of a 3 year old child and his language abilities of a 2 year old child"; "language abilities are equivalent to those of a 2 year old child, and his cognitive level of a 3-year old"; "language abilities are equivalent to those of a 1 and a half year old child, and his cognitive level of a 2 year old"; "severe mental retardation and he is nonverbal" (Tapus et al, 2012) Pleo Intermediate to high; dinosaur robot reacting to participants' prosody "ASD and control groups were well matched on verbal and cognitive abilities, with all participants having Verbal and Performance (or nonverbal) IQ above 70" (Kim, Paul, Shic, & Scassellati, 2012 (Vanderborght et al, 2012) QueBall Low; spherical mobile robot "One agitated autistic child"; "Several severely autistic children" (Salter, Davey, & Michaud, 2014) In contrast, technological interventions have been consistently found to hold a great deal of appeal for children with autism and allow them to maintain a "spirit of play" (Colby, 1973) while building social and communicative skills (Moore, McGrath, & Thorpe, 2000;Sansosti & PowellSmith, 2008;Swettenham, 1996;Tanaka et al, 2010;Wainer & Ingersoll, 2011). As the field of computing has advanced, robots have become an increasingly accessible technology, and research in the fields of socially assistive robotics (SAR) (Feil-Seifer & Mataric, 2012), autism therapy, and soci...…”

Technology-Facilitated Diagnosis and Treatment of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Engineering Perspective

“…However, some research has used non-humanoid robots [11,[80][81][82][83][84]. To employ humanoid robots in autism studies, one has to overcome two technical challenges: (1) how to control the movements of the robot, and (2) how to obtain the input from the participant.…”

Robotics Agent Coacher for CP motor Function (RAC CP Fun)

“…Currently, the main populations where SAR is used are the elderly, patients with dementia and cognitive/motor disorders, 22,23 and children with autism. [24][25][26][27][28][29] Unlike computer technology-based treatment, e.g., video instruction 30 and virtual peers using the Internet, 31 SAR not only provides the opportunity to learn from a nonthreatening, three-dimensional inanimate object, it also presents the opportunity to learn through interaction, thus encouraging autonomous social behavior.…”