Social Engagement of Children with Autism during Interaction with a Robot

TL;DR

This study investigates whether children with autism exhibit greater social engagement when interacting with an imitative robot versus a human during a motor imitation task, aiming to enhance understanding of robot-assisted social development.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the comparative social engagement levels of children with autism interacting with robots versus humans in imitation tasks.

Findings

Children with autism show increased social engagement with robots.

Robots can effectively facilitate social interaction skills.

The study highlights potential for robot-assisted interventions.

Abstract

Imitation plays an important role in development, being one of the precursors of social cognition. Even though some children with autism imitate spontaneously and other children with autism can learn to imitate, the dynamics of imitation is affected in the large majority of cases. Existing studies from the literature suggest that robots can be used to teach children with autism basic interaction skills like imitation. Based on these findings, in this study, we investigate if children with autism show more social engagement when interacting with an imitative robot (Fig 1) compared to a human partner in a motor imitation task.