Attitudes of Children with Autism towards Robots: An Exploratory Study
This incremental research helps identify sub-groups of children with autism who might benefit more from robot-assisted interventions.
The study explored how attitudes of children with autism towards robots and their social impairments relate to preferences for robot over human interaction, finding that children with autism generally have positive attitudes and often prefer robots, with attitudes linked to longer gazes towards robots.
In this exploratory study we assessed how attitudes of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) towards robots together with children's autism-related social impairments are linked to indicators of children's preference of an interaction with a robot over an interaction with a person. We found that children with ASD have overall positive attitudes towards robots and that they often prefer interacting with a robot than with a person. Several of children's attitudes were linked to children's longer gazes towards a robot compared to a person. Autism-related social impairments were linked to more repetitive and stereotyped behaviors and to a shorter gaze duration in the interaction with the robot compared to the person. These preliminary results contribute to better understand factors that might help determine sub-groups of children with ASD for whom robots could be particularly useful.