Use of lean robotic communication to improve social response of children with autism

In light of inconclusive results reported in the literature on the benefits of using robots to foster social skills in autistic children, this paper assesses the use of robots with no facial expressions to create basic structured communication with autistic children. We address the complexity of communication when autistic children cannot understand the unintentional facial expressions of human instructors in training sessions. The paper reports 19 training sessions of a mild autistic child interacting with a humanoid robot with approximate duration of 20 minutes each. It was observed that during these 19 sessions, the child improved his responses to the directives given by the robot. The paper discusses the results in terms of the implications for professionals in the field. Further, the study serves as a proof of concept for future contributions to media richness theory.N/

Patient centric intervention for children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder. Can ICT solutions improve the state of the art ?

In my PhD research we developed an integrated technological platform for the acquisition of neurophysiologic signals in a semi-naturalistic setting where children are free to move around, play with different objects and interact with the examiner. The interaction with the examiner rather than with a screen is another very important feature of the present research, and allows recreating a more real situation with social interactions and cues. In this paradigm, we can assume that the signals acquired from the brain and the autonomic system, are much more similar to what is generated while the child interacts in common life situations. This setting, with a relatively simple technical implementation, can be considered as one step towards a more behaviorally driven analysis of neurophysiologic activity. Within the context of a pilot open trial, we showed the feasibility of the technological platform applied to the classical intervention solutions for the autism. We found that (1) the platform was useful during both children-therapist interaction at hospital as well as children-parents interaction at home, (2) tailored intervention was compatible with at home use and non-professional therapist/parents. Going back to the title of my thesis: 'Can ICT solution improve the state-of-the-art ?' the answer could be: 'Yes it can be an useful support for a skilled professional in the field of autis

Blending human and artificial intelligence to support autistic children’s social communication skills

This paper examines the educational efficacy of a learning environment in which children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) engage in social interactions with an artificially intelligent (AI) virtual agent and where a human practitioner acts in support of the interactions. A multi-site intervention study in schools across the UK was conducted with 29 children with ASC and learning difficulties, aged 4-14 years old. For reasons related to data completeness and amount of exposure to the AI environment, data for 15 children was included in the analysis. The analysis revealed a significant increase in the proportion of social responses made by ASC children to human practitioners. The number of initiations made to human practitioners and to the virtual agent by the ASC children also increased numerically over the course of the sessions. However, due to large individual differences within the ASC group, this did not reach significance. Although no evidence of transfer to the real-world post-test was shown, anecdotal evidence of classroom transfer was reported. The work presented in this paper offers an important contribution to the growing body of research in the context of AI technology design and use for autism intervention in real school contexts. Specifically, the work highlights key methodological challenges and opportunities in this area by leveraging interdisciplinary insights in a way that (i) bridges between educational interventions and intelligent technology design practices, (ii) considers the design of technology as well as the design of its use (context and procedures) on par with one another, and (iii) includes design contributions from different stakeholders, including children with and without ASC diagnosis, educational practitioners and researchers

ENGAGEMENT RECOGNITION WITHIN ROBOT-ASSISTED AUTISM THERAPY

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition typically diagnosed in early childhood, which is characterized by challenges in using language and understanding abstract concepts, effective communication, and building social relationships. The utilization of social robots in autism therapy represents a significant area of research. An increasing number of studies explore the use of social robots as mediators between therapists and children diagnosed with autism. Assessing a child’s engagement can enhance the effectiveness of robot-assisted interventions while also providing an objective metric for later analysis. The thesis begins with a comprehensive multiple-session study involving 11 children diagnosed with autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This study employs multi-purposeful robot activities designed to target various aspects of autism. The study yields both quantitative and qualitative findings based on four behavioural measures that were obtained from video recordings of the sessions. Statistical analysis reveals that adaptive therapy provides a longer engagement duration as compared to non-adaptive therapy sessions. Engagement is a key element in evaluating autism therapy sessions that are needed for acquiring knowledge and practising new skills necessary for social and cognitive development. With the aim to create an engagement recognition model, this research work also involves the manual labelling of collected videos to generate a QAMQOR dataset. This dataset comprises 194 therapy sessions, spanning over 48 hours of video recordings. Additionally, it includes demographic information for 34 children diagnosed with ASD. It is important to note that videos of 23 children with autism were collected from previous records. The QAMQOR dataset was evaluated using standard machine learning and deep learning approaches. However, the development of an accurate engagement recognition model remains challenging due to the unique personal characteristics of each individual with autism. In order to address this challenge and improve recognition accuracy, this PhD work also explores a data-driven model using transfer learning techniques. Our study contributes to addressing the challenges faced by machine learning in recognizing engagement among children with autism, such as diverse engagement activities, multimodal raw data, and the resources and time required for data collection. This research work contributes to the growing field of using social robots in autism therapy by illuminating an understanding of the importance of adaptive therapy and providing valuable insights into engagement recognition. The findings serve as a foundation for further advancements in personalized and effective robot-assisted interventions for individuals with autism

Playful E-textile Sonic Interaction for Socially Engaged and Open-Ended Play Between Autistic Children

Research on the potential benefits of technology for autistic children is an emergent field in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), especially within the Child-Computer Interaction Community. This thesis contributes a design approach grounded in theories of play, cognitive development, and autism to expand the discourse on methodological guidelines for performing empirical studies with non-verbal autistic children and to extend the design space to cater to the socio-emotional and sensory needs of this population. The thesis reveals how sonic e-textile Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) can be used effectively to mediate children’s social participation in playful activities. This is demonstrated through developing three explorative field-studies conducted at a specialist school based in North-East London where two sonic e-textile playful TUIs, namely Mazi and Olly, have been created and tested with three groups of autistic children aged between 5-10. The three studies ran over the period of three years and were designed to investigate the potentials of TUIs as shareable toys during leisure and recreational activities to a) support social and playful interactions among peers and b) provide opportunities for self-regulation. The key contributions of this thesis are the designs of two tangible user interfaces, which offer a set of design approaches to guide researchers through creating shareable and playful tangibles for non-verbal autistic children; a framework for analysis and a thorough evaluation process that other researchers could use to assess the efficacy of playful TUI designs for nonverbal autistic children; and an in-depth discussion about the research process, which offers a new perspective about holistic designs and evaluation of technologies that aim to scaffold play in groups non-verbal autistic children

A Biosymtic (Biosymbiotic Robotic) Approach to Human Development and Evolution. The Echo of the Universe.

In the present work we demonstrate that the current Child-Computer Interaction paradigm is not potentiating human development to its fullest – it is associated with several physical and mental health problems and appears not to be maximizing children’s cognitive performance and cognitive development. In order to potentiate children’s physical and mental health (including cognitive performance and cognitive development) we have developed a new approach to human development and evolution. This approach proposes a particular synergy between the developing human body, computing machines and natural environments. It emphasizes that children should be encouraged to interact with challenging physical environments offering multiple possibilities for sensory stimulation and increasing physical and mental stress to the organism. We created and tested a new set of computing devices in order to operationalize our approach – Biosymtic (Biosymbiotic Robotic) devices: “Albert” and “Cratus”. In two initial studies we were able to observe that the main goal of our approach is being achieved. We observed that, interaction with the Biosymtic device “Albert”, in a natural environment, managed to trigger a different neurophysiological response (increases in sustained attention levels) and tended to optimize episodic memory performance in children, compared to interaction with a sedentary screen-based computing device, in an artificially controlled environment (indoors) - thus a promising solution to promote cognitive performance/development; and that interaction with the Biosymtic device “Cratus”, in a natural environment, instilled vigorous physical activity levels in children - thus a promising solution to promote physical and mental health

Social Robotic for the educational intervention in the Autism Spectrum Disorders. Opportunities and perspectives

Social Robotic represents a research area that is being increasingly developed in the educational intervention for the Autism Spectrum Disorders. Communication and social deficits commonly associated with the disorder can be compensated by using Social Robotics. Related positive effects can be in terms of developing adaptive behavior. This paper presents evidences related to recent studies on the Social Robotics, and highlights the opportunities presented by the approach for the educational interventions specifically developed for the students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and low cognitive functioning. Robotica sociale per l’intervento educativo nei disturbi dello spettro autistico. Opportunità e prospettiveLa robotica sociale rappresenta un’area di ricerca in costante sviluppo nell’intervento educativo nei disturbi dello spettro autistico. L’utilizzo della robotica sociale permette di compensare i deficit comunicativi e sociali comunemente associati al disturbo, con effetti positivi sullo sviluppo dei comportamenti adattivi. In questo articolo vengono presentate le evidenze relative agli studi più recenti sulla robotica sociale e vengono delineate le opportunità presentate dall’approccio per gli interventi educativi specificamente sviluppati per allievi con disturbi dello spettro autistico a bassa funzionalità cognitiva

Bonding with Robotic Pets. Children’s Cognitions, Emotions and Behaviors towards Pet-Robots. Applications in a Robot Assisted Quality of Life Intervention in a Pediatric Hospital

[eng] This dissertation addresses the emergence of emotional involvement in the interaction with social robots. More specifically, we investigate the dynamics of children bonding with robotic pets to design robot based programs to improve patients’ experience in pediatric hospitals. Pet-robots are robots that mimic real pets as dogs or cats, both in appearance and in behavior. We assume that gaining understanding of the emotional dimension of children/pet-robots interaction would contribute to evaluate the impact of pet-robots in children’s lives, and to inform both robots’ design and robot-based applications for health and wellbeing. First, this research presents a novel model of bonding with robotic pets inspired in the human-animal affiliation and particularly in child-dog relatedness, where bonding is envisaged as a process towards companionship that evolves through three stages –first impression, short-term interaction and lasting relationship- characterized by distinguishable patterns of behaviors, cognitions and feelings that can be identified and measured. Secondly, a behavioral analysis of children interacting with the Pleo robot -a robotic pet shaped as a baby dinosaur-, with an emphasis on the interactional surface and particularly on the sequences of dyad’s reciprocal exchange is presented. The outcomes are twofold: the ethograms and coding schemes of Pleo’s and children’s behaviors and a higher level categorization of behaviors involved in bond forming that can be applied to other platforms and users. Thirdly, a naturalistic study carried out in a pediatric hospital to observe the interactive practices with the Pleo robot in the wild and to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a Pleo-based intervention to accompany children is analyzed and discussed. Inspired on the beneficial effects of real pets’ company, the study consisted in an intensive ethnography, a systematic observation of a group play session and a follow-up case study of an experience of adopting a Pleo. Our results show that the key mechanism driving bond forming is the robot’s capability to deploy credible attachment behaviors –proximity seeking and resource soliciting- that elicit complementary nurturing and play behaviors in children. Beyond the novelty effect, self-reinforcing processes as learning and evolution can keep children engaged in rewarding interaction with the robot over time. Moreover, Pleo’s versatility allows diverse modalities of interaction and individual and group play, satisfying different needs as company, technological curiosity, entertainment and social facilitation both for normatively developed children and for children with special needs and their families. In general, the introduction of robot-based play was regarded by the hospital professionals not only as compatible with their daily day practice but valuable as a regular resource to smooth children’s stay at the hospital.[cat] Aquesta tesi aborda el sorgiment de la implicació emocional en la interacció amb els robots socials. Més específicament, s'investiga la dinàmica de la afiliació dels nens amb les mascotes robòtiques – robots que evoquen els animals de companyia- per tal de dissenyar programes basats en robots per millorar l'experiència dels pacients en els hospitals pediàtrics. Considerem que investigar la dimensió emocional de la interacció nen/robots-mascota contribuirà a avaluar-ne el seu impacte en la vida del nens i nenes, i a informar el disseny d’aquests robots i de les aplicacions que se’n deriven per a la seva salut i benestar. A partir d’un model evolutiu original de vinculació nen-robot inspirat en la afiliació d'humans i animals - i més concretament, en la relació nen-gos- s’analitza el comportament de nens interactuant amb el robot Pleo –robot mascota en forma de nadó dinosaure-, amb un èmfasi en les seqüències d'intercanvi recíproc de la diada. Els resultats són de dos tipus: els etogrames del Pleo i dels nens, i una categorització conductual a més alt nivell, aplicables a altres plataformes i usuaris. A partir d’aquest estudi, s’analitza una experiència d’intervenció en un hospital pediàtric per observar les pràctiques interactives amb el robot Pleo, i per avaluar la viabilitat i l'eficàcia d'una intervenció basada en el Pleo per acompanyar els nens. Inspirat en els efectes beneficiosos de la companyia de mascotes reals, l'estudi va consistir en una etnografia, una anàlisi observacional d'una sessió de joc en grup amb el robot, i un estudi de cas longitudinal d'una experiència d’adopció d’un Pleo. Els resultats mostren que l’aspecte clau que impulsa la formació del vincle és la capacitat del robot per desplegar conductes d’aferrament creïbles –cerca de proximitat i sol·licitud de recursos- que provoquen comportaments complementaris de criança i joc en els nens, més enllà de l'efecte novetat. D'altra banda, la versatilitat de Pleo permet diverses modalitats d'interacció i joc, i satisfer diferents necessitats dels usuaris, com ara companyia, curiositat, entreteniment i facilitació social, també per nens i nenes amb necessitats especials i les seves famílies. En general, la introducció del joc basat en el robot va ser considerada pels professionals de l'hospital no només compatible amb la seva pràctica professional, sinó també com un recurs valuós per alleugerir l'estada dels nens a l'hospital