News and Knowledge

One of the common challenges faced by people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is learning social skills, such as empathy and reading others’ emotions. Recent developments have suggested that therapists may soon be able to use robots to help teach those social skills.

How does robot-assisted therapy work? First, a therapist teaches the child how to recognize emotional responses, such as the stereotypical facial expressions of happiness, sadness, and fear. The robot is programmed to demonstrate those same emotions, interact with the child, and, in some cases, observe the child during those interactions.

For example, MIT researchers have “developed a type of personalized machine learning that helps robots estimate the engagement and interest of each child during these interactions, using data that are unique to that child,” according to a recent article in “MIT News.” Equipped with that “deep learning” network, their robots came to the same conclusions regarding children’s responses as human experts 60 percent of the time. As humans are rarely in strong agreement, the correlation between the robot and a human expert was actually higher than the correlation score between two humans, which ranged from 50 to 55 percent. The researchers used humanoid robots that are able to convey emotions by changing the color of their eyes, limb movements, and intonation.

The article noted that children participating in a study done by the researchers treated the robots the same way they would treat a human. The individualized data collected from each child, including facial expressions, head and body movement, gestures, heart rate, body temperature, and galvanic skin response, enabled therapists to address each child’s specific progress and needs rather than taking a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

At Brigham Young University, a team of students has created Benni, a robot specifically made to enrich therapy for children with ASD. According to an article in “The Salt Lake Tribune,” Benni can initiate games to play with the children and encourage them to engage in conversation. The goal is for children with autism to learn interdependent play, participate in asking and answering questions, and develop a sense of empathy. The team plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign for their robot in the fall of 2018.

There have also been studies of robot-assisted therapy conducted in the United Kingdom, such as the University of Hertfordshire’s Kaspar robot and The Development of Robot Enhanced Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (DREAM).

The goal of these robots is not to replace human therapists and therapies, but to supplement them. These engaging “toys” offer a way for children to continue to develop empathy and social skills outside of therapy hours.

An article in WIRED notes that the robots can only be as good as the treatment they’re programmed to deliver. With that in mind, it’s worth considering that any of these robotic interventions need to have the capability to be individualized and personalized based on each child’s needs and development. Given the amount of research being done with robots and studies currently in the works, that may not be a fantastical futuristic pipe dream but a very real therapeutic option in the near future.