Socially assitive robotics in autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorders that is characterized by complex behavioral phenotype and deficits in both social and cognitive functions and has been gradually increasing for the past 20 years. However, practically there are some difficulties in diagnosis and treatment due to a limited number of specialist and considerable cost. Emerging technology, especially socially assistive robotics (SAR), has expanded into the evaluation and intervention for children with ASD. SAR refers to a robot that provides assistance to the user in a social interaction setting. SAR becomes a tool that can teach or demonstrate socially desirable behaviors to help children who have trouble expressing themselves to others owing to their underdeveloped communication and social skills as a result of ASD. This paper reviews the use of SAR to assist in the therapy of children with ASD and the extent to which the robots were successful in helping the children in their social, emotional and communication deficits was investigated. The study investigates the different roles that these robots were observed to play with children with ASD by categorizing and the outcome of studies that have been conducted in Korea. Despite the fact that SAR research is still in its formative stages, if rigorous research plans are developed based on clinical usefulness and effectiveness, and if a clinician with specialized knowledge of ASD participates in or evaluates the results of the research, there is the possibility to create a new paradigm for the treatment of ASD.