ABSTRACT
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a set of neurodevelopmental conditions, often characterised by important impairments in the social area. In the context of early intervention, we present preliminary results about the social behaviour of children with ASD using PlusMe as an experimental interactive toy, which is the first prototype of Transitional Wearable Companions concept. Specifically, PlusMe is designed to stimulate the children’s curiosity and encourage behaviour on the basis of social interaction. The pilot test involved five high-functioning children, mean age 41 months, range 36-50 months. The participants were engaged in play activities together with the PlusMe toy and two researchers who aimed to encourage the children’s social behaviour such as imitation and eye contact; the activities were repeated for four sessions (one per week). Although it is an ongoing study on a larger sample, the first data analysis is promising, preliminary observations seem to demonstrate that PlusMe can be used to improve some social behaviour such as eye contact, imitation, the interaction between two people.
Supplemental Material
- 2021. World Healt Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disordersGoogle Scholar
- American Psychiatric Association. 2013. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5 (5th ed.). Washington DC. 636–638 pages. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596Google Scholar
- A. J. Baxter, T. S. Brugha, H. E. Erskine, R. W. Scheurer, T. Vos, and J. G. Scott. 2015. The epidemiology and global burden of autism spectrum disorders. Psychological Medicine 45, 3 (2015), 601–613. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329171400172XGoogle ScholarCross Ref
- Momotaz Begum, Richard W. Serna, and Holly A. Yanco. 2016. Are Robots Ready to Deliver Autism Interventions? A Comprehensive Review. International Journal of Social Robotics 8 (2016), 157–181. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-016-0346-yGoogle ScholarCross Ref
- Geraldine Dawson. 2013. Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention Appears Beneficial for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Pediatrics 162, 5 (2013), 1080–1081. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2013.02.049Google ScholarCross Ref
- John Z Elias, Patricia Bockelman Morrow, Jonathan Streater, Shaun Gallagher, and Stephen Fiore. 2011. Towards triadic interactions in autism and beyond : transitional objects, joint attention, and social robotics. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 55th annual meeting, Vol. 55. 1486–1490. https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181311551309Google ScholarCross Ref
- E. Inguaggiato, G. Sgandurra, and G. Cioni. 2017. Brain plasticity and early development: Implications for early intervention in neurodevelopmental disorders. Neuropsychiatrie de l’Enfance et de l’Adolescence 65, 5(2017), 299–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurenf.2017.03.009Google Scholar
- Emily J.H. Jones, Teodora Gliga, Rachael Bedford, Tony Charman, and Mark H. Johnson. 2014. Developmental pathways to autism: A review of prospective studies of infants at risk. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 39 (2014), 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.12.001Google ScholarCross Ref
- Hirokazu Kumazaki, Zachary Warren, Amy Swanson, Yuichiro Yoshikawa, Yoshio Matsumoto, Yuko Yoshimura, Jiro Shimaya, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Nilanjan Sarkar, Joshua Wade, Masaru Mimura, Yoshio Minabe, and Mitsuru Kikuchi. 2019. Brief Report: Evaluating the Utility of Varied Technological Agents to Elicit Social Attention from Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 49 (2019), 1700–1708. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3841-1Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. Lord, M. Rutter, P. C. Dilavore, S. Risi, K. Gotham, and S. L Bishop. 2012. (ADOS-2) Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition. Western Psychological Services, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
- Kristen Lyall, Lisa Croen, Julie Daniels, M Daniele Fallin, Christine Ladd-Acosta, Brian K Lee, Bo Y Park, Nathaniel W Snyder, Diana Schendel, Heather Volk, Gayle C Windham, and Craig Newschaffer. 2017. The Changing Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Annual Review of Public Health 38, 1 (2017), 81–102. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044318Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Majnemer. 1998. Benefits of early intervention for children with developmental disabilities. Seminars in Pediatric Neurology 5 (1998), 62–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1071-9091(98)80020-XGoogle ScholarCross Ref
- Emilia Mikołajewska, Tomasz Komedziński, Joanna Dreszer, Bibianna Bałaj, and Dariusz Mikołajewski. 2015. Role of toys in the development and rehabilitation of children with developmental disorders. Journal of Education, Health and Sport 5, 4 (2015), 224–228. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16864Google Scholar
- Hayley Neimy, Martha Pelaez, Jacqueline Carrow, Katerina Monlux, and Jonathan Tarbox. 2017. Infants at Risk of Autism and Developmental Disorders: Establishing Early Social Skills.Behavioral Development Bullettin 22, 1 (2017), 6–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/bdb0000046Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. Özcan, D. Caligiore, V. Sperati, T. Moretta, and G. Baldassarre. 2016. Transitional Wearable Companions: A Novel Concept of Soft Interactive Social Robots to Improve Social Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. International Journal of Social Robotics 8, 4 (2016), 471–481. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-016-0373-8Google ScholarCross Ref
- Paola Pennisi, Alessandro Tonacci, Gennaro Tartarisco, Lucia Billeci, Liliana Ruta, Sebastiano Gangemi, and Giovanni Pioggia. 2016. Autism and social robotics: A systematic review. Autism Research 9(2016), 165–183. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1527Google ScholarCross Ref
- Sally J. Rogers. 1998. Neuropsychology of autism in young children and its implications for early intervention. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews 4 (1998), 104–112. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1098-2779(1998)4:2<104::aid-mrdd7>3.3.co;2-mGoogle ScholarCross Ref
- Brian Scassellati. 2007. How social robots will help us to diagnose, treat, and understand autism. Robotics research 28(2007), 552–563. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-48113-3Google Scholar
- Valerio Sperati, Beste Özcan, Laura Romano, Tania Moretta, Simone Scaffaro, Noemi Faedda, Giada Turturo, Francesca Fioriello, Simone Pelosi, Federica Giovannone, Carla Sogos, Vincenzo Guidetti, and Gianluca Baldassarre. 2020. Acceptability of the transitional wearable companion “+me” in children with autism spectrum disorder: A comparative pilot study. Frontiers in Psychology 11, May (2020), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00951Google Scholar
- Marjo Virnes, Eija Kärnä, and Virpi Vellonen. 2015. Review of Research on Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Use of Technology. Journal of Special Education Technology 30, 1 (2015), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/016264341503000102Google ScholarCross Ref
- Sara Jane Webb, Emily J.H. Jones, Jean Kelly, and Geraldine Dawson. 2014. The motivation for very early intervention for infants at high risk for autism spectrum disorders. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 16, 1 (2014), 36–42. https://doi.org/10.3109/17549507.2013.861018Google ScholarCross Ref
Recommendations
Interactive soft toys to support social engagement through sensory-motor plays in early intervention of kids with special needs
IDC '22: Proceedings of the 21st Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children ConferenceTransitional Wearable Companion (TWC) is a novel design concept, implemented as an interactive, smart, soft toy, which aims to stimulate curiosity and encourage social engagement in kids with special needs, during play activities with their caregivers. ...
Social benefit analysis of the Otto robot in therapies for children with ASD
IMXw '23: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences WorkshopsThis article aims to analyze the benefits and improvements in the life of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) brought through the use of the Otto robot during therapeutic sessions. The article explains how robotic therapy contributes to the ...
Evaluation of tablet apps to encourage social interaction in children with autism spectrum disorders
CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsThe increasing rates of diagnosis for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have brought unprecedented attention to these conditions. Interventions during childhood can increase the likelihood of independent living later in life, but most adults with ASDs ...
Comments