Analysis of the use of a robot to improve social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract Introduction Autism Spectrum Disorder is a set of developmental disorders that imply in poor social skills, lack of interest in activities and interaction with people. Treatments rely on teaching social skills and in such therapies robotics may offer aid. This work is a pilot study, which aims to show the development and usage of a ludic mobile robot for stimulating social skills in ASD children. Methods A mobile robot with a special costume and a monitor to display multimedia contents was designed to interact with ASD children. A mediator controls the robot’s movements in a room prepared for interactive sessions. Sessions are recorded to assess the following social skills: eye gazing, touching the robot and imitating the mediator. The interaction is evaluated using the Goal Attainment Scale and Likert scale. Ten children were evaluated (50% with ASD), using as inclusion criteria children with age 7-8, without use of medication, and without tendency to aggression or stereotyped movements. Results It was observed that the ASD group touched the robot about twice more in average than the control group (CG). They also looked away and imitated the mediator in a quite similar way as the CG, and showed extra social skills (verbal and non-verbal communication). These results are considered an advance in terms of improvement of social skills in ASD children. Conclusions Our studies indicate that the robot stimulated social skills in 4/5 of the ASD children, which shows that its concepts are useful to improve socialization and quality of life.

摘要 孤独症谱系障碍（Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD）是一类以社交技能缺陷、对各类活动及人际互动缺乏兴趣为核心表现的发育障碍性疾病。当前临床治疗以社交技能训练为主要手段，而机器人技术可为此类干预疗法提供有效辅助支持。本研究为一项先导性试验，旨在介绍一款用于激发孤独症谱系障碍儿童社交技能的游戏化移动机器人的开发与应用方案。
方法 本研究设计了一款搭载特殊外观服饰与多媒体内容播放显示屏的移动机器人，用于与孤独症谱系障碍儿童开展互动。由一名引导员在专为互动环节设置的房间内操控机器人的运动轨迹，互动过程全程录制，用于评估三项核心社交技能：眼神对视、触碰机器人以及模仿引导员动作。本次互动效果采用目标达成量表（Goal Attainment Scale）与李克特量表（Likert scale）进行量化评估。本研究共纳入10名受试儿童（其中50%为孤独症谱系障碍患者），入组标准为年龄7至8岁、未接受相关药物治疗、无攻击性行为倾向或刻板运动症状。
结果 研究结果显示，孤独症谱系障碍组儿童触碰机器人的平均次数约为对照组（Control Group, CG）的两倍。两组儿童在眼神回避行为与模仿引导员动作的表现上与对照组无显著差异，且孤独症谱系障碍组儿童还展现出了额外的社交技能（涵盖言语与非言语沟通维度）。上述研究成果被认为是孤独症谱系障碍儿童社交技能改善领域的一项重要进展。
结论 本研究表明，该机器人可激发五分之四的孤独症谱系障碍儿童的社交技能，证明其设计理念有助于提升儿童的社交能力与生活质量。