Autism

Biography

Biography: Dimitra Grammatikou

Abstract

Technology provides novel alternatives for social intervention for children with ASD. There have been many studies investigating the role of robots in the therapy of children with ASD, however there has not been documented in a clear manner the best way to measure the social progress when robots are implemented in a social therapy. Therefore, this study investigates several methods that can measure the social progress in children with ASD during a social interaction with robots. Experimental results are presented in order to show the advantages and drawbacks of each evaluation method. Thus, a robot with facial expressions is evaluated during the social intervention, recognizing that the ultimate goal of the interaction with the robot is the generalization of the basic social skills such as greeting or the recognition of facial expressions. Potential benefits and limitations of the measured methods are discussed to give correct feedback and to adjust the robot in a social intervention.