Joint Attention using Human-Robot Interaction: Impact of sensory preferences of children with autism

Abstract

Individuals suffering from Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have impaired skills in social communication and joint attention. In this paper, we explain how we designed and evaluated a Joint Attention (JA) task for individuals with ASD using the Nao humanoid robot. The interaction was tested in children and teenagers with ASD (N=11). Their proprioceptive and visual integration of cues were first assessed, with the hypothesis that individuals with an overreliance on proprioceptive cues and with a hyporeactivity to visual cues would have more difficulties conducting successful interactions with the robot. We observed that participants with an overreliance on proprioceptive cues and hyporeactivity to visual cues showed different behaviors in responding to joint attention. They followed the prompting of the Nao robot more slowly than individuals with an overreliance on visual cues and a hyporeactivity to proprioceptive cues. Defining such individual profiles prior to the social interaction with a robot and working closely with caregivers could provide promising strategies for designing successful and adapted Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) for individuals with ASD.