The Effects of Long-Term Child–Robot Interaction on the Attention and the Engagement of Children with Autism
Using a social robot has been proven to have multiple benefits for the training of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, there is no clarity on the impact of the interaction quality between a child with ASD and a robot on the effectiveness of the therapy. Previous research showed th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Robotics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2218-6581/9/4/79 |
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| author | Maria T. H. van Otterdijk Manon W. P. de Korte Iris van den Berk-Smeekens Jorien Hendrix Martine van Dongen-Boomsma Jenny C. den Boer Jan K. Buitelaar Tino Lourens Jeffrey C. Glennon Wouter G. Staal Emilia I. Barakova |
| author_facet | Maria T. H. van Otterdijk Manon W. P. de Korte Iris van den Berk-Smeekens Jorien Hendrix Martine van Dongen-Boomsma Jenny C. den Boer Jan K. Buitelaar Tino Lourens Jeffrey C. Glennon Wouter G. Staal Emilia I. Barakova |
| author_sort | Maria T. H. van Otterdijk |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Using a social robot has been proven to have multiple benefits for the training of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, there is no clarity on the impact of the interaction quality between a child with ASD and a robot on the effectiveness of the therapy. Previous research showed that the use of a robot in Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) could be an effective treatment component in diminishing ASD-related symptoms. Further analyzing the data from a randomized controlled trial of PRT treatment, we looked at the long-term effects of child–robot game interactions to see whether the interaction quality changes over time. The attention and the engagement of six children were measured through the observation of non-verbal behavior at three different stages in the treatment that took 20 sessions per child. The gaze and arm/hand behavior of the participants towards the robot, the game, and other present humans were observed. The analysis showed no significant decrease in the attention and the engagement of the children towards the robot and the game. However, the attention and engagement toward the parents of the children increased. We conclude that the main result of sustained attention and engagement with the robot is due to the personalization of the games to meet the specific needs of this user group. These specific needs are met through inclusion of variability to the level of development and personal choice of each participating child. We see the additional finding of increased attention towards the parents as especially positive since the children are expected to improve in human–human interaction as a result of this treatment. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:59:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fd56659b71ea4b7c93077ab086b55a38 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2218-6581 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:59:23Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Robotics |
| spelling | doaj.art-fd56659b71ea4b7c93077ab086b55a382023-11-20T15:25:05ZengMDPI AGRobotics2218-65812020-09-01947910.3390/robotics9040079The Effects of Long-Term Child–Robot Interaction on the Attention and the Engagement of Children with AutismMaria T. H. van Otterdijk0Manon W. P. de Korte1Iris van den Berk-Smeekens2Jorien Hendrix3Martine van Dongen-Boomsma4Jenny C. den Boer5Jan K. Buitelaar6Tino Lourens7Jeffrey C. Glennon8Wouter G. Staal9Emilia I. Barakova10Department of Industrial Design, University of Technology Eindhoven, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The NetherlandsDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The NetherlandsDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The NetherlandsDepartment of Industrial Design, University of Technology Eindhoven, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The NetherlandsDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The NetherlandsKarakter Child and Adolescent Psychiatric, 6710 BB Ede, The NetherlandsDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The NetherlandsTiViPE, 5706 LD Helmond, The NetherlandsDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The NetherlandsDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The NetherlandsDepartment of Industrial Design, University of Technology Eindhoven, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The NetherlandsUsing a social robot has been proven to have multiple benefits for the training of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, there is no clarity on the impact of the interaction quality between a child with ASD and a robot on the effectiveness of the therapy. Previous research showed that the use of a robot in Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) could be an effective treatment component in diminishing ASD-related symptoms. Further analyzing the data from a randomized controlled trial of PRT treatment, we looked at the long-term effects of child–robot game interactions to see whether the interaction quality changes over time. The attention and the engagement of six children were measured through the observation of non-verbal behavior at three different stages in the treatment that took 20 sessions per child. The gaze and arm/hand behavior of the participants towards the robot, the game, and other present humans were observed. The analysis showed no significant decrease in the attention and the engagement of the children towards the robot and the game. However, the attention and engagement toward the parents of the children increased. We conclude that the main result of sustained attention and engagement with the robot is due to the personalization of the games to meet the specific needs of this user group. These specific needs are met through inclusion of variability to the level of development and personal choice of each participating child. We see the additional finding of increased attention towards the parents as especially positive since the children are expected to improve in human–human interaction as a result of this treatment.https://www.mdpi.com/2218-6581/9/4/79engagementattentionchildren with ASDpivotal response treatmentrandomized controlled trial (RCT)long-term robot intervention |
| spellingShingle | Maria T. H. van Otterdijk Manon W. P. de Korte Iris van den Berk-Smeekens Jorien Hendrix Martine van Dongen-Boomsma Jenny C. den Boer Jan K. Buitelaar Tino Lourens Jeffrey C. Glennon Wouter G. Staal Emilia I. Barakova The Effects of Long-Term Child–Robot Interaction on the Attention and the Engagement of Children with Autism Robotics engagement attention children with ASD pivotal response treatment randomized controlled trial (RCT) long-term robot intervention |
| title | The Effects of Long-Term Child–Robot Interaction on the Attention and the Engagement of Children with Autism |
| title_full | The Effects of Long-Term Child–Robot Interaction on the Attention and the Engagement of Children with Autism |
| title_fullStr | The Effects of Long-Term Child–Robot Interaction on the Attention and the Engagement of Children with Autism |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Effects of Long-Term Child–Robot Interaction on the Attention and the Engagement of Children with Autism |
| title_short | The Effects of Long-Term Child–Robot Interaction on the Attention and the Engagement of Children with Autism |
| title_sort | effects of long term child robot interaction on the attention and the engagement of children with autism |
| topic | engagement attention children with ASD pivotal response treatment randomized controlled trial (RCT) long-term robot intervention |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2218-6581/9/4/79 |
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