The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Intelligent robots, developed to solve cognitive problems, have social-emotional intelligence to teach play skills, mediating turn taking, joint attention and imitation behaviors. PARO, a baby harp seal robot, evokes strong responses from children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Paro was used to promote social communication during group sessions with youngsters. Intelligent robots were first developed in the 1950’s, with an initial focus on cognition and problem-solving abilities. Robots with social-emotional intelligence only developed more recently and their uses are now being more fully explored. Some initial studies using such robots to teach play skills to autistic preschoolers found they successfully mediated turn-taking, joint attention, and imitation. Recent reports of  “humanoid” (human-like) robots (KASPAR and Bandit) suggest they are successful in generating social attention and social smiles from isolated severely autistic children. Initial results using the humanoid robot NAO indicate potential for using this technology during traditional therapy or classroom sessions. Paro, an evocative baby harp seal robot, has been used in nursing homes and hospitals to promote positive social interaction from withdrawn and socially isolated individuals as it tends to evoke an immediate social-emotional response from those individuals interacting with it.

The current study enlisted 18 youngsters diagnosed with a moderate to severe ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) attending a specialized autism school to play with Paro in groups of 4 to 5 in order to determine if such interaction would be effective in stimulating social play, joint attention, language and emotional expression, and appropriate sensory play while decreasing stereotypical behavior. Play sessions were conducted once a week for 10 weeks under 3 different conditions: Free Play (first 3 sessions), Facilitated Play (3 sessions), and Representational Play (3 sessions) with a final generalization Free Play session.

The results showed that social interactions and communication increased during the intervention sessions while inappropriate sensory seeking decreased although these tended to return to baseline during the generalization session, indicating the importance of on-going structure for these students. Seeking out peers (joint attention) did remain improved during the generalization session. An interesting additional finding was that a fearful student overcame much of his anxiety from repeated exposure and encouragement during the group experience.  Robots, in various forms, are being explored as educational tools to enhance learning for individuals with autism spectrum disorders. The current research contributes to supporting their incorporation in a learning environment for autistic students and suggests that they have the potential to have a significant impact on the development of a variety of core skills.

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