Improving Collaborative Play Between Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Their Siblings: The Effectiveness of a Robot-Mediated Intervention Based on Lego^® Therapy

The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of a brief robot-mediated intervention based on Lego^® therapy on improving collaborative behaviors (i.e., interaction initiations, responses, and play together) between children with ASD and their siblings during play sessions, in a therapeutic setting. A concurrent multiple baseline design across three child–sibling pairs was in effect. The robot-intervention resulted in no statistically significant changes in collaborative behaviors of the children with ASD. Despite limited effectiveness of the intervention, this study provides several practical implications and directions for future research.