Characteristics Associated with Improvement Following the SAM Robot Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Background: Robot-based interventions have been shown to be useful in teaching social skills to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the SAM robot intervention for children with ASD across a range of cognitive ability. Methods: Twenty children ages five to 14 years old with ASD participated in the study and were assigned to the intervention (n = 10) or control group (n = 10). All children interacted with the SAM robot weekly across eight sessions. The intervention group played emotion-based games with the robot, and the control group completed an emotion-free dance activity with SAM. Outcome measures evaluated emotion identification, facial recognition, and parent- and teacher-rated social skills, and children and parents rated child enjoyment and motivation during the robot interactions. Results: Both groups rated high levels of enjoyment and motivation. The intervention and control groups did not differ on outcome measures. Within the intervention group, children who showed the greatest improvement were those with borderline cognitive and receptive language abilities at baseline. Conclusions: The SAM robot is effective for a subset of the ASD population. Robot-based interventions are motivating and engaging for children with ASD and can be useful for skill acquisition. The continued development of this treatment modality will provide a fun, engaging, and efficacious intervention experience for children with ASD, and the reproducibility of robot technology has the potential to improve access to services for this population. The inclusion of children across a range of intellectual and language abilities expands upon the existing literature on technology-based interventions, which often excludes children with below-average cognitive ability. Results provide evidence for continued research into technology-based interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder, including robot-based interventions.