Joint Attention using Human-Robot Interaction: Impact of sensory preferences of children with autism
Résumé
Individuals suffering from Autistic Spectrum
Disorder (ASD) have impaired skills in social communication
and joint attention. In this paper, we explain how we designed
and evaluated a Joint Attention (JA) task for individuals with
ASD using the Nao humanoid robot. The interaction was tested
in children and teenagers with ASD (N=11). Their
proprioceptive and visual integration of cues were first
assessed, with the hypothesis that individuals with an
overreliance on proprioceptive cues and with a hyporeactivity
to visual cues would have more difficulties conducting
successful interactions with the robot. We observed that
participants with an overreliance on proprioceptive cues and
hyporeactivity to visual cues showed different behaviors in
responding to joint attention. They followed the prompting of
the Nao robot more slowly than individuals with an
overreliance on visual cues and a hyporeactivity to
proprioceptive cues. Defining such individual profiles prior to
the social interaction with a robot and working closely with
caregivers could provide promising strategies for designing
successful and adapted Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) for
individuals with ASD.