A Study Of The Induction Effect Of Social Robots On Social Behavior Of Autistic Children

Research shows that social robots have the potential to become an effective intervention tool for autistic children.There have been many researchers applied social robots to intervent with social skills of autistic children,and made positive results.However,there are few domestic studies on the social robot training in social skills,and lack of the comparative research between human therapists and social robots.Therefore,constructing a social behavior induction model for children with autism autistic children based on social robots and exploring the differences in social behaviors of autistic children between human therapists and social robots is a current urgent research.The first part of this study examined the prior literature,analyzed the application of social robots in the field of social skills rehabilitation in autism.We then developed three kinds of social activities on NAO-Robot,which were greetings,finger instructions followed and eye gaze followed.In addition,30 subjects were selected to attend the experiment,and three kinds of social activities were conducted through human therapists and NAO-Robot.Eye gaze,proximity behavior,contact behavior,mimicry behavior,and biofeedback rate were collected by behavioral observation and biofeedback.The results show that:(1)Autistic children respond better to social robots than human therapists.(2)Social robots have a better arousal level than human therapists for autistic children.(3)Social robots have an inductive effect on other social behaviors such as initial social interaction for autistic children.This study explored autistic children's social behavior differences between human therapists and social robots,enriched the social robots application in the field of rehabilitation theory and practice in autistic children.