Fully robotic social environment for teaching and practicing affective interaction: Case of teaching emotion recognition skills to children with autism spectrum disorder, a pilot study

Abstract

21st century brought along a considerable decrease in social interactions, due to the newly emerged lifestyle around the world, which became more noticeable recently of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, children with autism spectrum disorder have further complications regarding their social interactions with other humans. In this paper, a fully Robotic Social Environment (RSE), designed to simulate the needed social environment for children, especially those with autism is described. An RSE can be used to simulate many social situations, such as affective interpersonal interactions, in which observational learning can take place. In order to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed RSE, it has been tested on a group of children with autism, who had difficulties in emotion recognition, which in turn, can influence social interaction. An A-B-A single case study was designed to show how RSE can help children with autism recognize four basic facial expressions, i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear, through observing the social interactions of two robots speaking about these facial expressions. The results showed that the emotion recognition skills of the participating children were improved. Furthermore, the results showed that the children could maintain and generalize their emotion recognition skills after the intervention period. In conclusion, the study shows that the proposed RSE, along with other rehabilitation methods, can be effective in improving the emotion recognition skills of children with autism and preparing them to enter human social environments.

Managing social-educational robotics for students with autism spectrum disorder through business model canvas and customer discovery

“…The development of ASD-specific social robots can be traced back to the seminal study by Emanuel and Weir (1976) , in which a computer-controlled electrotechnical device, a turtle-like robot (LOGO) moving on wheels around the floor, was used as a remedial tool for a student diagnosed with ASD. It was not until the late 1990s that numerous laboratories started investigating this topic (see Begum et al, 2016 ; Ismail et al, 2019 ; Leoste et al, 2022 ; Bertacchini et al, 2022 ; Soleiman et al, 2023 ; Bharatharaj et al, 2023 for reviews). In the current research, a ‘student diagnosed with ASD’ is referred to as an ‘ASD student.’…”

“…Students with ASD show minimal activation of the brain’s reward system in response to social reinforcement, unlike their typically developing (TD) peers, for whom social interactions are inherently rewarding ( Chevallier et al, 2012 ). To simulate social interaction between humans, humanoid (anthropomorphic) robots should integrate the social motivation mechanisms of the human brain for an effective HRI ( Arora and Arora, 2020 ; Arora et al, 2022 ; Bertacchini et al, 2022 ; Leoste et al, 2022 ; Newman et al, 2022 ; Salhi et al, 2022 ; Bharatharaj et al, 2023 ; Soleiman et al, 2023 ). Given the student’s ASD characteristics, it appears worthwhile to investigate whether a social robot, with its motivational appeal, behavioral repetition, simplified appearance, and lack of social judgment, might appeal more to people with ASD than humans ( Bertacchini et al, 2022 ; Leoste et al, 2022 ; Salhi et al, 2022 ; Bharatharaj et al, 2023 ; Soleiman et al, 2023 ).…”

“…The increased popularity/interest in robotics education has raised questions about its performance and efficiency for students ( Chandra, 2014 ; Somyürek, 2015 ; Berry et al, 2016 ; Nemiro et al, 2017 ; Bertacchini et al, 2022 ; Leoste et al, 2022 ; Salhi et al, 2022 ; Bharatharaj et al, 2023 ; Soleiman et al, 2023 ). ASD students exhibit favorable outcomes when engaging with social robots during HRI field experiments, attributed to the social motivation theory of autism, highlighting the role of SMT in understanding the interactions between ASD individuals and robots ( Dubois-Sage et al, 2024 ).…”

“…Some HRI benefits to these students include high levels of interest, elevated attention, high engagement, calm/active behaviors (with less repetitive behavior portrayals), and emotional response modification while being comfortably engaged in an activity/instruction provided by social robots ( Dautenhahn and Billard, 2002 ; Kozima, Nakagawa and Yasuda, 2005 ; Lee et al, 2012 ; Scassellati, Admoni and Matarić, 2012 ; Costescu et al, 2014 ). These robotic interventions and interactions result in positive learning environments for students diagnosed with ASD and other learning disorders and disabilities ( Zhang et al, 2019 ; Arora et al, 2022 ; Bertacchini et al, 2022 ; Leoste et al, 2022 ; Salhi et al, 2022 ; Bharatharaj et al, 2023 ; Soleiman et al, 2023 ).…”

“…Social-educational robotics and technological advancements in human-robot interaction (HRI) are revolutionizing education, learning, and cognitive rehabilitation capabilities ( Leoste et al, 2022 ; Bharatharaj et al, 2023 ; Soleiman et al, 2023 ). HRI research is a rapidly expanding field of artificial intelligence (AI) encompassing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), robotics, human-computer interaction, psychology, and social sciences.…”