Impact of Humanoid Social Robots on Treatment of a Pair of Iranian Autistic Twins

Abstract

In recent years robots have been increasingly used in autism research. In this paper the effects of robot-assisted interventions on two seven year old autistic twin brothers, one of whom is high-functioning and the other low-functioning, are explored. To this end, 12 sessions of therapeutic scenarios were designed and presented to the autistic twin subjects in the presence of two robots, a therapist and their parents in individual and group modes. The results showed great potential benefits from using robots in group therapeutic games in both high- and low- functioning autistic children, such as improvement in imitation and joint attention skills for both brothers, as well as communication with each other. The results also indicated a decrease of stereotyped behaviors in the low-functioning brother, and improvement in social and cognitive skills in the high-functioning brother.