Let robots do the talking

Abstract

This paper describes an investigation of different variations of the robotic intervention protocol, a method for obtaining verbalization data from children during evaluation that involves using a social robot as a proxy for a test facilitator to prompt, ask, and help children thus encouraging them to verbalize their thoughts and experiences. A number of variations of this verbalization protocol were implemented and tried out, leading to guidelines for the application of the method and for the implementation of social robots aimed to support it.