Development of Interaction Scenarios Based on Pre-school Curriculum in Robotic Intervention for Children with Autism (original) (raw)
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2020
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a diagnosis which is becoming more common among young children and there are several types of therapies available. It has been shown that robots increase children with ASD's willingness to interact, and some researches propose that robots can be used for therapy. This is partly due to robots being easier to understand for a child with ASD, since a robot does not get tired of listening and does not show complicated emotions while still being humanlike. This project aimed to incrementally design the interaction within a therapy session for a child with ASD, making use of a NAO robot, along with an accompanying graphical user interface (GUI). With the help of a medical expert in the area of ASD, the session has been evaluated during three design cycles. The focus of the therapy session has been on making the robot facilitate learning amongst children, in the areas of decision making and recognising feelings in others. A session with six different tasks has been created with an accompanying GUI. The session has been tested and approved by a medical expert in the field of ASD. The medical expert has also given feedback along the way and improvements have been made according to it.
Humanoid Robot Enhancing Social and Communication Skills of Autistic Children: Review
Artificial Intelligence & Robotics Development Journal
Autism is a neurological disease that affects people’s social, communicational and mental abilities. This makes it difficult for them to express themselves and integrate seamlessly with other people and society as a whole. With the number of autism cases steadily increasing, researchers and caretakers alike around the world are working on finding a teaching technique to help with the therapy and education of autistic children. Due to the number of resources and expertise that are required for this operation, it has proven to be quite difficult to find such a teaching technique. The results of our literature survey also show that the USA has the most research in this field, followed by England and Spain. The aim of this paper is to study the interaction of autistic children with the humanoid robot NAO. Therefore, we developed different interactive activities and materials for testing the children’s attitude and engagement. After careful observation and experimenting, it was found th...
2010
Autism here refers to the term Autistic Spectrum Disorders which comprises a range of manifestations of a disorder that can occur to different degrees and in a variety of forms (Jordan, 1999). Autism is a lifelong developmental disability, often accompanied by learning disabilities, that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them. The exact cause or causes of autism is/are still unknown. For detailed diagnostic criteria the reader is referred to DSM-IV, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, American Psychiatric Association (1995). For the purpose of this paper we list the main impairments that are characteristic of people with autism, provided by The National Autistic Society (NAS, 2004): a. impaired social interaction-the inability to relate to others in meaningful ways, difficulty in forming social relationships, the inability to understand others' intentions, feelings and mental states. b. impaired social communication-difficulties with verbal and non verbal communication e.g difficulties in understanding gesture and facial expressions, difficulty in understanding metaphors etc. c. impaired imagination-difficulty in the development of play, and having limited range of imaginative activities. In addition, people with autism usually exhibit little reciprocal use of eyecontact and rarely get engaged in interactive games. They show a tendency
This paper presents the initial response of Autism children interacting with Humanoid Robot NAO in Robot-based Intervention Program. Twelve Autism children from National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM) is being selected based on their behaviour characteristics which has been identified by certified clinical specialist, psychiatrist, occupational therapy and psychologist. Their Intelligence Quotient based on Stanford Binet Intelligence Test has been first carried out and they have undergo the autism diagnose based on Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule by certified psychologist from NASOM. The twelve of Autism Children will then participated in the Robot-based Intervention Program (RBIP), which started from module 1 until module 5. The interaction between Autism Children and Humanoid Robot NAO is being recorded with two Sony Video Camera and one mini camera mounted on the chess of Humanoid Robot Nao for initial response analysis based on Gillian Autism Rating Scale-2 nd Edition. The interaction module between the children and robot has been developed by using the graphical user interface from choreographe of Humanoid Robot Nao.
2012
The evolution of human-robot interaction (HRI) is now expanding its wings to aid children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in areas of socialization, communication and playful behavior through robot-based intervention. Herein we present our holistic, longstanding goal to contribute to the lives of children with ASD; who suffer a lifelong developmental disability. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on a case study in our pilot experiment where a child with ASD is exposed to the humanoid robot NAO in order to gauge his initial response and behavior in the presence of a robot. NAO robot is the chosen robotic agent as it is a commercially available humanoid with simpler in appearance compared to real humans, thus appears more approachable to children with ASD. The pilot procedures involve the robot executing basic, simple components of interaction through a series of 5 different modules. In this study, the principal results show that the basic HRI carried out by the robot is able to suppress the child's autistic behavior during the child-robot interaction. Also, more eye contact is observed between the child and robot compared to the child with his teacher during regular class session. Relating this to the child's IQ which falls in the moderate category, it is suggested that children with ASD in the same IQ group will be receptive to robot-based intervention even in the first interaction session. Hence, it can be concluded that the humanoid robot NAO has potential to serve as a platform to support and initiate interaction in children with ASD.
2009 Second International Conferences on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions, 2009
The general context of the work presented in this paper is assistive robotics with our long-term aim to support children with autism. This paper is part of the Aurora project that studies ways in which robotic systems can encourage basic communication and social interaction skills in children with autism. This paper investigates how a small minimally expressive humanoid robot KASPAR can assume the role of a social mediator -encouraging children with low functioning autism to interact with the robot, and to break their isolation and importantly, to interact with other people. The article provides a case study evaluation of segments of trials where three children with autism, who usually do not interact with other people in their day to day activity, interacted with the robot and with copresent adults. A preliminary observational analysis was undertaken which applied, in abbreviated form, certain principles from conversation analysis -notably attention to the context in which the target behaviour occurred. The analysis was conducted by a social psychologist with expertise in using conversation analysis to understand interactions involving persons with an ASD. The analysis emphasises aspects of embodiment and interaction kinesics and revealed unexpected competencies on the part of the children. It showed how the robot served as a salient object mediating and encouraging interaction between the children and co-present adults.
Development of a Robot-Based Environment for Training Children with Autism
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2014
This study is done as a part of design-research processes that aims to co-create technology supported robot centered therapy environment for autistic children. We attempt to evaluate to which extent the therapists who perform behavioral training of children with autism can be supported by robot technology in the process of therapy content creation and training. First, we feature a robotcentered environment that is technically designed to decrease the complexity of programming dynamic, synchronous and parallel interactive robot behavior to a level compatible with content creation. Afterwards, we apply the Cognitive Dimensions Framework (CDF) approach for evaluation of the usability of this environment that is employed to control a robot interacting with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). A pilot test with therapists of two clinics followed by a test with adolescents with autism was performed. Participants in the pilot test performed tasks according to the different types of user activity in the CDF, and answered a questionnaire corresponding with the different dimensions. The results show negative attitude towards one particular dimension, but also high scores in other dimensions. As an additional validation of the usability of the environment, 9 adolescents with ASD could also create robot scenarios. We interpret these results as follows. In general, the therapists and autistic adolescents could program relatively simple behavioral scenarios with robots. However, we need to further explore whether assembling and executing of more complex robot scenarios such as programming of dynamic real-life behaviors and task scheduling is possible by end-users.
From Child-Robot Interaction to Child-Robot-Therapist Interaction: A Case Study in Autism
Applied Bionics and Biomechanics, 2012
Troubles in social communication as well as deficits in the cognitive treatment of emotions are supposed to be a fundamental part of autism. We present a case study based on multimodal interaction between a mobile robot and a child with autism in spontaneous, free game play. This case study tells us that the robot mediates the interaction between the autistic child and therapist once the robot-child interaction has been established. In addition, the child uses the robot as a mediator to express positive emotion playing with the therapist. It is thought that the three-pronged interaction i.e., child-robot-therapist could better facilitate the transfer of social and emotional abilities to real life settings. Robot therapy has a high potential to improve the condition of brain activity in autistic children.
Intervention program using a robot for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Research, Society and Development, 2021
This study investigated the effectiveness on social skills development of an educational intervention program for schoolchildren with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using an educational robot. Over the period of a month, four boys with ASD, ranging in age from 7 to 14 years, participated in structured educational scenarios involving the robot “Edison”, which is in the form of a toy car, with the aid of a teacher/researcher. The behavior of the four boys during the sessions was recorded by an observer, using an observation form. The boys appeared to enjoy the intervention sessions, and a positive outcome was observed following interaction with the robot. Specifically, by the end of the month of intervention, all the boys showed improvement in social skills and cooperation skills and a reduction in untoward social behaviors. They showed an increase in eye contact, followed instructions and appeared to understand the social rules better, and in general their interaction with the teache...
Universal Access in the Information Society, 2005
This article presents a longitudinal study with four children with autism who were exposed to a humanoid robot over a period of several months. The longitudinal approach allowed the children time to explore the space of robot-human, as well as human-human interaction. Based on the video material documenting the interactions, a quantitative as well as qualitative analysis was conducted. The quantitative analysis showed an increase in duration of pre-defined behaviours towards the later trials. A qualitative analysis of the video data, observing the children's activities in their interactional context, revealed further aspects of social interaction skills (imitation, turn-taking and role-switch) and communicative competence that the children showed. The results clearly demonstrate the need for and benefits of long-term studies in order to reveal the full potential of robots in the therapy and education of children with autism.