An interactive tangram game for children with Autism

Abstract

This work explores the use of a social robot as an assistive agent during therapy sessions, in order to assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), through a Tangram game. This experiment has two conditions: the Tutor Mode - the robot gives help whenever the child needs; and the Peer Mode - the robot plays with the child in turn-taking. The results showed that, in the TM, the robot was capable of stimulating children’s attention towards the game and to assist them most of the times. In the PM, the robot also stimulated children’s attention to the game and was able to establish turns for most participants.