Brief Report: Development of a Robotic Intervention Platform for Young Children with ASD.

Journal: Journal of autism and developmental disorders
PMID: 25503680

Abstract

Increasingly researchers are attempting to develop robotic technologies for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This pilot study investigated the development and application of a novel robotic system capable of dynamic, adaptive, and autonomous interaction during imitation tasks with embedded real-time performance evaluation and feedback. The system was designed to incorporate both a humanoid robot and a human examiner. We compared child performance within system across these conditions in a sample of preschool children with ASD (n = 8) and a control sample of typically developing children (n = 8). The system was well-tolerated in the sample, children with ASD exhibited greater attention to the robotic system than the human administrator, and for children with ASD imitation performance appeared superior during the robotic interaction.

Authors

  • Zachary Warren
    Department of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Special Education, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Pl., Nashville, TN, 37206, USA. zachary.warren@vanderbilt.edu.
  • Zhi Zheng
    Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University.
  • Shuvajit Das
    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
  • Eric M Young
  • Amy Swanson
    Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Pl., Nashville, TN, 37206, USA.
  • Amy Weitlauf
    Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Pl., Nashville, TN, 37206, USA.
  • Nilanjan Sarkar

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