Using the social robot probo as a social story telling agent for children with ASD

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bram Vanderborght ◽  
Ramona Simut ◽  
Jelle Saldien ◽  
Cristina A. Pop ◽  
Alina S. Rusu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Performance ◽  
Social Stories ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
Robot Assisted ◽  
Social Story ◽  
The Social ◽  
Children's Social Skills

This paper aims to study the role of the social robot Probo in providing assistance to a therapist for robot assisted therapy (RAT) with autistic children. Children with autism have difficulties with social interaction and several studies indicate that they show preference toward interaction with objects, such as computers and robots, rather than with humans. In 1991, Carol Gray developed Social Stories, an intervention tool aimed to increase children’s social skills. Social stories are short scenarios written or tailored for autistic individuals to help them understand and behave appropriately in social situations. This study shows that, in specific situations, the social performance of autistic children improves when using the robot Probo, as a medium for social story telling, than when a human reader tells the stories. The robot tells Social Stories to teach ASD children how to react in situations like saying “hello”, saying “thank you” and “sharing toys”. The robot has the capability of expressing emotions and attention via its facial expressions and its gaze. The paper discusses the use of Probo as an added-value therapeutic tool for social story telling and presents the first experimental results. Keywords: social robot; ASD children; social story; robot assisted therapy

Animation, Theory of Mind and Humanoid Robots: Creating a Social Robot Video Task

Leonardo ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Ziggy O’Reilly ◽  
David Silvera-Tawil ◽  
Ionat Zurr ◽  
Diana Tan
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Humanoid Robots ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Robot Assisted

Abstract Theory of Mind (ToM) —a social cognitive ability commonly under-developed in autistic individuals— is necessary to attribute mental states to oneself and others. Research into robot-assisted interventions to improve ToM ability in autistic children has become increasingly popular. However, no appropriate task currently exists to measure the degree of efficacy of robot-assisted interventions targeting ToM ability. In this paper, the authors demonstrate how animation techniques and principles can be leveraged to develop and produce videos of humanoid robots interacting, which could selectively measure ToM.

Interaction with a Therapy Dog Enhances the Effects of Social Story Method in Autistic Children

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreea A. Grigore ◽  
Alina S. Rusu
Keyword(s):  
Social Partner ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Social Story ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Social Responses ◽  
Therapy Dog ◽  
Single Subject Research ◽  
Social Initiations ◽  
The Social

Abstract This study explored the effects of a combination between two methods that have proved to enhance the social abilities of autistic children—Social Story and Animal Assisted Therapy. The main hypothesis of this investigation was that a naturally enriched social environment (i.e., the presence of a therapy dog) improves the effectiveness of Social Story method. Two social skills were targeted: (1) the ability to greet a social partner and (2) the ability to introduce oneself to a social partner, by using a standard single-subject research design. Three preschool autistic children were included in the study. The dependent variables were the frequency of the appropriate social interactions relevant to the target social skill, the level of prompt needed to provide the expected social response, and the frequency of social initiations. The presence of the therapy dog while reading the social story increased the frequency of social initiations and decreased the level of social prompt needed to elicit social responses from children with autism.

Pedagogical principals of teaching the social skills to little school aged autistic children

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (10) ◽  
pp. 22-25
Author(s):  
Kamala Ibrahim Aliyeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Skills ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
School Age ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Education Process

The article called "Pedagogical principals of teaching the social skills to little school aged autistic children" deals with the ways of teaching social skills to the children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In the begining of 20 th century teaching the social skills to the children who fell behind their peers in terms of psychological development began to improve. Following this, some approaches appeared and played a significant role in the development of children in this regard. In education process, besides prossesing academic knowledge, teaching social skills is important for these children to be able to live independitly (without dependence on anyone) in the society and behave in the frame of social norms. The explanation of learning social skills is noted, based on different theoretical aspects in the article and this facilitates teaching process of social skills. Key words: social skills, social learning, direct learning, learning theories, autism, little school age period, social performance

scholarly journals Utilizing Social Stories to Increase Prosocial Behavior and Reduce Problem Behavior in Young Children with Autism

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa A. Wright ◽  
Rebecca B. McCathren
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Problem Behaviors ◽  
Social Stories ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Social Story ◽  
The Social ◽  
Literature Base ◽  
Young Children With Autism ◽  
And Gender

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the effects of a Social Story intervention on the behavior rates of 4 young children with autism using a multiple-baseline across participants design. The results of this paper indicate that the Social Story was modestly effective in increasing prosocial behavior rates in 3 of the 4 participants, though none of the participants reached the prosocial behavior rates of age and gender-matched peers. The problem behaviors of the participants modestly decreased with the intervention. Maintenance of skills over a 1-month period was demonstrated for all of the participants. The variable and inconsistent results of the research add to the current literature base in support of the use of Social Stories for some children with autism.

scholarly journals Enhancement of the Communication Effectiveness of Interactive Robots for Autism Therapy by Using Touch and Colour Feedback

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaeryoung Lee ◽  
Hiroki Takehashi ◽  
Chikara Nagai ◽  
Goro Obinata ◽  
Dimitar Stefanov
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Communication Effectiveness ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Robot Assisted ◽  
Autism Therapy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Therapeutic Robots ◽  
Reaction Patterns

AbstractPrevious studies in the field of robot assisted therapy demonstrated that robots engage autistic children’s attention in a better way. Therefore, the interactive robots appear to be a promising approach for improving the social interaction and communication skills of autistic children. However, most of the existing interactive robots use a very small number of communication variableswhich narrow their effectiveness to a few aspects of autistic childrens’ social communication behaviour. In the present work, we explore the effects of touching and colours on the communication effectiveness between a robot and an autistic child and their potential for further adjustability of the robot to child’s behaviour. Firstly, we investigated touching patterns of autistic and non-autistic children in three different situations and validated their responses by comparison of touching forces. Results showed that patterns of touching by non-autistic children have certain consistency, while reaction patterns in autistic children vary from person to person. Secondly, we studied the effect of colour feedback in autism therapy with the robot. Results showed that participants achieved better completion rate when colour feedback was provided. The results could support the design of more effective therapeutic robots for children with autism.

scholarly journals Mitigating Children’s Pain and Anxiety during Blood Draw Using Social Robots

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1211
Author(s):  
Matthijs H. J. Smakman ◽  
Koen Smit ◽  
Lotte Buser ◽  
Tom Monshouwer ◽  
Nigel van Putten ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Young Patients ◽  
Hospital Setting ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Blood Collection ◽  
Medical Procedure ◽  
Blood Draw ◽  
The Social ◽  
Children's Pain

Young pediatric patients who undergo venipuncture or capillary blood sampling often experience high levels of pain and anxiety. This often results in distressed young patients and their parents, increased treatment times, and a higher workload for healthcare professionals. Social robots are a new and promising tool to mitigate children’s pain and anxiety. This study aims to purposefully design and test a social robot for mitigating stress and anxiety during blood draw of children. We first programmed a social robot based on the requirements expressed by experienced healthcare professionals during focus group sessions. Next, we designed a randomized controlled experiment in which the social robot was applied as a distraction method to measure its capacity to mitigate pain and anxiety in children during blood draw in a children’s hospital setting. Children who interacted with the robot showed significantly lower levels of anxiety before actual blood collection, compared to children who received regular medical treatment. Children in the middle classes of primary school (aged 6–9) seemed especially sensitive to the robot’s ability to mitigate pain and anxiety before blood draw. Children’s parents overall expressed strong positive attitudes toward the use and effectiveness of the social robot for mitigating pain and anxiety. The results of this study demonstrate that social robots can be considered a new and effective tool for lowering children’s anxiety prior to the distressing medical procedure of blood collection.

scholarly journals A Survey on Socially Assistive Robotics: Clinicians’ and Patients’ Perception of a Social Robot within Gait Rehabilitation Therapies

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 738
Author(s):  
Denniss Raigoso ◽  
Nathalia Céspedes ◽  
Carlos A. Cifuentes ◽  
Antonio J. del-Ama ◽  
Marcela Múnera
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Assistive Robotics ◽  
Gait Rehabilitation ◽  
Unified Theory ◽  
Positive Perception ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Socially Assistive Robotics ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
The Social

A growing interest in Socially Assistive Robotics in Physical Rehabilitation is currently observed; some of the benefits highlight the capability of a social robot to support and assist rehabilitation procedures. This paper presents a perception study that aimed to evaluate clinicians’ and patients’ perception of a social robot that will be integrated as part of Lokomat therapy. A total of 88 participants were surveyed, employing an online questionnaire based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The participants belong to two health care institutions located in different countries (Colombia and Spain). The results showed an overall positive perception of the social robot (>60% of participants have a positive acceptance). Furthermore, a difference depending on the nature of the user (clinician vs. patient) was found.

How to Choose the Right Partners in Cross-Sector Partnership in Emerging Countries? A Political Embeddedness Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 000765032098260
Author(s):  
Jiawen Chen ◽  
Qian Zhang ◽  
Linlin Liu
Keyword(s):  
Close Relationships ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Partner Selection ◽  
Emerging Countries ◽  
Social Partnership ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
Relational Risks

In emerging countries such as China where the government is gradually withdrawing from involvement in social affairs, firms face dilemmas around relational risks of partnering with different forms of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Affiliated NGOs (those with close relationships with government) are more likely to sabotage the social partnership through misconduct, and are also capable of higher standards of collaborative social performance compared with independent NGOs (those with few such relationships). This study proposes that firms’ political embeddedness helps mitigate relational risks in cross-sector partner selection, and finds that politically connected firms are more likely to partner with affiliated NGOs than with independent NGOs in China. This effect is more pronounced for private firms that are less socially oriented or are located in regions with less-developed formal institutions and social trust. Our findings highlight relational risks relevant to cross-sector partner selection literature and offer important insights into how relational risks can be reduced in cross-sector partner selection in emerging countries.

scholarly journals The Social Robot in Rehabilitation and Assistance: What is the Future?

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 244
Author(s):  
Daniele Giansanti
Keyword(s):  
The Elderly ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Clinical Use ◽  
Research Development ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Collaborative Robotics ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future

This commentary aims to address the field of social robots both in terms of the global situation and research perspectives. It has four polarities. First, it revisits the evolutions in robotics, which, starting from collaborative robotics, has led to the diffusion of social robots. Second, it illustrates the main fields in the employment of social robots in rehabilitation and assistance in the elderly and handicapped and in further emerging sectors. Third, it takes a look at the future directions of the research development both in terms of clinical and technological aspects. Fourth, it discusses the opportunities and limits, starting from the development and clinical use of social robots during the COVID-19 pandemic to the increase of ethical discussion on their use.

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