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.
@article{arxiv.1806.07805,
title = {Attitudes of Children with Autism towards Robots: An Exploratory Study},
author = {Andreia Costa and Tonie Schweich and Louise Charpiot and Georges Steffgen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1806.07805},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
Presented at Interaction Design and Children (IDC-CRI2018) Workshop (arXiv:submit/2277826)