Engagement Is Not Transfer: A Withdrawal Study of a Consumer Social Robot with Autistic Children at Home

TL;DR

This study shows that sustained engagement with social robots does not necessarily lead to improved real-world social skills in autistic children, highlighting the importance of withdrawal strategies.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that withdrawing robot interaction can enhance social motivation and empathy, challenging assumptions about engagement transfer.

Findings

Continued robot access reduces anxiety and is highly usable.

Withdrawal improves social motivation, emotion understanding, and empathy.

Withdrawal encourages reorientation to human social interactions.

Abstract

This study examines whether engagement with social robots translates into improved human-directed social abilities in autistic children. We conducted an 8-week home-based randomized controlled trial with 40 children aged 5--9 using a commercial social robot (Qrobot). Families were assigned to either continued robot access or robot withdrawal. Quantitative measures and caregiver interviews assessed anxiety, social motivation, emotion inference, and empathy. Results showed that continued robot access significantly reduced anxiety, confirming strong affective benefits and high usability. However, children in the withdrawal group demonstrated greater improvements in social motivation, emotion understanding, and empathic behaviors toward caregivers and peers. Qualitative findings revealed a "handoff versus siloing" pattern: withdrawal promoted reorientation toward human social interaction, while continued access concentrated engagement within the child--robot dyad and limited transfer to real-world contexts. We interpret these results as evidence that high engagement does not guarantee social transfer.