e-space
Manchester Metropolitan University's Research Repository

    An explorative study on robotics for supporting children with autism spectrum disorder during clinical procedures

    DI Nuovo, A, Bamforth, J, Conti, D, Sage, K ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7365-5177, Ibbotson, R, Clegg, J, Westaway, A and Arnold, K (2020) An explorative study on robotics for supporting children with autism spectrum disorder during clinical procedures. In: HRI: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, 23 March 2020 - 26 March 2020.

    [img]
    Preview
    Published Version
    Available under License In Copyright.

    Download (874kB) | Preview

    Abstract

    This short report presents a small-scale explorative study about children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) interaction with robots during clinical interactions. This is part of an ongoing project, which aims at defining a robotic service for supporting children with developmental disabilities and increase the efficiency of routine procedures that may create distress, e.g. having blood taken or an orthopaedic plaster cast applied. Five children with confirmed diagnoses of ASD interacted with two social robots: the small humanoid NAO and the pet-like MiRo. The encounters mixed play activities with a simulated clinical procedure. We included parents/carers in the interaction to ensure the child was comfortable and at ease. The results of video analysis and parents' feedback confirm possible benefits of the physical presence of robots to reduce children's anxiety and increase compliance with instructions. Parents/carers convincingly support the introduction of robots in hospital procedures to their help children.

    Impact and Reach

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    400Downloads
    6 month trend
    91Hits

    Additional statistics for this dataset are available via IRStats2.

    Altmetric

    Repository staff only

    Edit record Edit record