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Robotics and Autonomous Systems Lab
at Vanderbilt

Brief Report: Evaluating the Utility of Varied Technological Agents to Elicit Social Attention from Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

AUTHORS

Kumazaki HHirokazu , Warren ZZachary , Swanson AAmy , Yoshikawa YYuichiro , Matsumoto YYoshio , Yoshimura YYuko , Shimaya JJiro , Ishiguro HHiroshi , Sarkar NNilanjan , Wade JJoshua , Mimura MMasaru , Minabe YYoshio , Kikuchi MMitsuru . Journal of autism and developmental disorders. ; 49(4). 1700-1708

ABSTRACT

Technological agents could be effective tools to be used in interventions for enhancing social orienting for some young children with ASD. We examined response to social bids in preschool children with ASD and typical development (TD) at a very early age (i.e., around 3 years) using social prompts presented by technological agents of various forms and human comparisons. Children with ASD demonstrated less response overall to social bids compared to TD controls, across agents or human. They responded more often to a simple humanoid robot and the simple avatar compared to the human. These results support the potential utilization of specific robotic and technological agents for harnessing and potentially increasing motivation to socially-relevant behaviors in some young children with ASD.