Brief Report: Evaluating the Utility of Varied Technological Agents to Elicit Social Attention from Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Hirokazu Kumazaki, Zachary Warren, Amy Swanson and 10 others
PMID 30511126WHAT IT FOUND
Children with ASD looked less than peers after simple 'Hey!' bids from robots, an avatar, or a human.
Within ASD, the simple robot and screen avatar drew more looks than the human or the human-like robot.
Key findings
01Children with ASD turned their heads less often than TD children after social bids from the android robot, simple humanoid robot, screen avatar, and human.
02Among children with ASD, looking toward the human was significantly less frequent than looking toward the simple humanoid robot or the avatar.
03Among children with ASD, looking toward the simple humanoid robot or the avatar was significantly more frequent than looking toward the android robot.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 14 children with ASD completed the session, and one enrolled child could not continue because of fear, so the sample was small and may not represent children with greater anxiety or lower tolerance for testing. The study tested a single short lab task using only a 'Hey!' prompt, not imitation, conversation, emotion recognition, or everyday communication demands. Looking toward the agent was used as a measure of preference, but a head turn could also reflect surprise, distraction, or annoyance. The agents were not placed in counterbalanced positions, because of room and technology constraints. The paper did not test whether any agent improves social communication or language; it compared immediate looking responses.
Declared interests
The work was funded by Japanese government research grants: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Center of Innovation Program from the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and ERATO ISHIGURO Symbiotic Human-Robot Interaction Project. No additional author conflict-of-interest statement is provided.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the higher head-turn rates to the simple robot or avatar as evidence that these agents improve social communication. The study measured a one-time looking response to a 'Hey!' prompt in a lab task, not a therapy outcome.