Does the Social Robot Nao Facilitate Cooperation in High Functioning Children with ASD?

We designed a coordination–cooperation game dedicated to teaching the theory of mind (ToM) to children with autism spectrum disorder. Children interacted with either a robot or a human. They had to coordinate their gestures with the beats of a ditty sung by their partner (coordination), who then imp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of social robotics 2024-02, Vol.16 (2), p.281-298
Main Authors: Kostrubiec, Viviane, Lajunta, Chloé, Paubel, Pierre-Vincent, Kruck, Jeanne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Autism
Children
Children & youth
Computer Science
Control
Cooperation
Coordination
Coupling
Engineering
Humanities and Social Sciences
Intervention
Mechatronics
Psychology
Robotics
Robots
Skills
Social skills
System theory
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Summary:We designed a coordination–cooperation game dedicated to teaching the theory of mind (ToM) to children with autism spectrum disorder. Children interacted with either a robot or a human. They had to coordinate their gestures with the beats of a ditty sung by their partner (coordination), who then implicitly asked them for help (cooperation). Before and after this cooperation–coordination task, the children performed a helping task that assessed their ToM skills: the ability to infer social partners’ intentions. Despite the regularity and predictability of the robot, children made the most progress in the helping task after interacting with a human. Motor coupling was more stable in child–human than in child–robot dyads. The ability of the social partner to actively maintain a stable social coupling seems to be a primary factor inciting the child to learn and transfer the just-practiced social skills.
ISSN:1875-4791
1875-4805
DOI:10.1007/s12369-023-01063-4