TY - GEN
T1 - Robotic Trains as an Educational and Therapeutic Tool for Autism Spectrum Disorder Intervention
AU - Alhaddad, Ahmad Yaser
AU - Javed, Hifza
AU - Connor, Olcay
AU - Banire, Bilikis
AU - Al Thani, Dena
AU - Cabibihan, John John
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Social robots are emerging to become useful assistive tools for use in the therapy and education of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The nature of ASD causes its symptoms and manifestations to vary widely, resulting in a variety of robotic form factors that have been developed for this application. These robots vary in structure, shape, size, color, and function. In this paper, we propose a train-based model to be used as an educational and rehabilitation tool. We explore the responses from children with ASD in a special needs centre toward a variety of toys (e.g. ball, cymbals, truck) and robots (i.e. humanoid and a robotic seal), including trains. Experiments were conducted to verify whether or not trains have any advantage over other form factors and to extract any features of interest to the children. Results show that trains represent an appealing platform to a wider range of children with ASD. Additionally, results showed that simple features that can be easily incorporated into trains play a significant role in the interactions and could serve as reward mechanism.
AB - Social robots are emerging to become useful assistive tools for use in the therapy and education of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The nature of ASD causes its symptoms and manifestations to vary widely, resulting in a variety of robotic form factors that have been developed for this application. These robots vary in structure, shape, size, color, and function. In this paper, we propose a train-based model to be used as an educational and rehabilitation tool. We explore the responses from children with ASD in a special needs centre toward a variety of toys (e.g. ball, cymbals, truck) and robots (i.e. humanoid and a robotic seal), including trains. Experiments were conducted to verify whether or not trains have any advantage over other form factors and to extract any features of interest to the children. Results show that trains represent an appealing platform to a wider range of children with ASD. Additionally, results showed that simple features that can be easily incorporated into trains play a significant role in the interactions and could serve as reward mechanism.
KW - Autism
KW - Social robots
KW - Trains
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053525979&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-97085-1_25
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-97085-1_25
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85053525979
SN - 9783319970844
T3 - Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
SP - 249
EP - 262
BT - Robotics in Education - Methods and Applications for Teaching and Learning
A2 - Balogh, Richard
A2 - Obdrzalek, David
A2 - Lepuschitz, Wilfried
A2 - Merdan, Munir
A2 - Koppensteiner, Gottfried
PB - Springer Verlag
T2 - 9th International Conference on Robotics in Education, RiE 2018
Y2 - 18 April 2018 through 20 April 2018
ER -