Assessing the Potential of Robotics Technology for Enhancing Educational for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Alghamdi, Maha; Alhakbani, Noura; Al-Nafjan, Abeer

doi:10.3390/bs13070598

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(163 reference statements)

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“…This intervention is driven by the societal need for technological innovations that can support and improve current therapies for the increasing number of children with autism [3]. Today, a variety of assistive technology applications have been developed to assist in the treatment of autism [4], such as computer-assisted learning, virtual reality, telehealth, and robotics. For instance, Frolli et al [5] investigated the use of virtual reality (VR) as a tool for improving social skills in individuals with ASD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Measuring Engagement in Robot-Assisted Therapy for Autistic Children

Al-Nafjan

Alhakbani

Alabdulkareem

2023

Behavioral Sciences

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Children with autism face a range of challenges when it comes to verbal and nonverbal communication. It is essential that children participate in a variety of social, educational, and therapeutic activities to acquire knowledge that is essential for cognitive and social development. Recent studies have shown that children with autism may be interested in playing with an interactive robot. The robot can engage these children in ways that demonstrate and train essential aspects of human interaction, guiding them in therapeutic sessions to practice more complex forms of interaction found in social human-to-human interactions. This study sets out to investigate Robot-Assisted Autism Therapy (RAAT) and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) approaches for measuring the engagement of children during therapy sessions. The study population consisted of five native Arabic-speaking autistic children aged between 4 and 11 years old. The child–robot interaction was recorded by the robot camera and later used for analysis to detect engagement. The results show that the proposed system offers some accuracy in measuring the engagement of children with ASD. Our findings revealed that robot-assisted therapy is a promising field of application for intelligent social robots, especially to support autistic children in achieving their therapeutic and educational objectives.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Today, a variety of assistive technology applications have been developed to assist in the treatment of autism [ 4 ], such as computer-assisted learning, virtual reality, telehealth, and robotics. For instance, Frolli et al [ 5 ] investigated the use of virtual reality (VR) as a tool for improving social skills in individuals with ASD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Engagement in Robot-Assisted Therapy for Autistic Children

Al-Nafjan

Alhakbani

Alabdulkareem

2023

Behavioral Sciences

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“…Holeva et al [10] suggested that a robot-assisted psychological intervention helped improve psychosocial skills in children with ASD. Robot-assisted therapy has also been found to have the potential to improve social interaction, communication and emotion regulation in children with ASD [11,12]. Third, using video modeling to intervene in the social competence of individuals with ASD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the Effects of Theory of Mind and Social Skills Training on Social Competence in Adolescents with Autism

Ma,

Mao,

Xie

et al. 2023

Behavioral Sciences

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Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have impairment in interpreting emotional communication and the mental states of others, which limits their social competence. Mounting evidence has suggested that theory of mind (ToM) is a vital strategy to enhance social communication and interaction skills of children with ASD. However, very little research has looked at how ToM and social skills training affect social competence in adolescents with autism. This study examined the effectiveness of an intervention program, ToM-SS, which integrated the ToM and social skills training to improve the social competence of three adolescents with autism. A multiple baseline across behaviors design was adopted to evaluate the participants’ learning outcomes and demonstrated a functional relationship between intervention and skill mastery. Results show that the intervention produced substantial improvements in students’ acquisition of ToM (e.g., seeing leads to knowing and identifying desire-based and context-based emotions) and targeted social skills (e.g., praising others, expressing emotion and seeking help). Feedback and comments from teachers and parents also indicate good social validity of the intervention program.

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