Is the social robot probo an added value for social story intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders?

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the first results of using the robot Probo as a facilitator in Social Story Intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Four preschoolers diagnosed with ASD participated in this research. For each of them, a specific social skill deficit was identified, like sharing toys, saying Thank you, saying Hello, and an individualized Social Story was developed. The stories were told by both the therapist and the robot in different intervention phases. Afterwards an experimental task was created where the child needed to exercise the ability targeted by the story. The results of this study showed that the participant needed a decreased level of prompt to perform the targeted behavior, when the story was told by the robot compared to the intervention with the human storyteller. Therefore, this preliminary study created great expectancies about the potential of Robot Assisted Therapy as an added value for ASD interventions.