Evaluate the Effect of Social Robot Mediation on the Development of Emotional Skills
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Recruiting
- Sponsor
- Enrollment
- 20
- Locations
- 2
- Primary Endpoint
- Test of Emotional Vocabulary
Study Overview
Brief Summary
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that involves difficulties especially in the sphere of social interaction, social communication, and restricted and stereotyped behavior patterns.
In particular, emotional regulation is a central developmental skill. In fact, the emotional dysregulation observed in children with autism results in increased social and behavioral difficulties over time.
Therefore, the present protocol aims to test the role of a human-assisted social robot as a mediator of social-emotional understanding intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
The children, will be divided into two groups, an experimental one in which training will be conducted through the use of social robot and control group which will be conducted through traditional therapy.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Treatment
- Masking
- Single (Participant)
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 5 Years to 10 Years (Child)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •Language in sentences
- •use of connectors
- •ability to narrate events not present
- •ADOS level: module 2
- •Griffiths: QS>75
Exclusion Criteria
- •presence of other medical disorders
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Test of Emotional Vocabulary
Time Frame: The administration has a duration of 15 minutes.
The Test of Emotional Vocabulary contains an initial board, with which the child is introduced to the two protagonists of the subsequent stories, a boy and a girl; there is then a pretest board and 14 storyboards. For each of them, the examiner reads the short story to the child and then asks the child to choose, from two alternative emotional words, the one that best expresses what the protagonist of the story is feeling. In the first part, the child's understanding of emotional vocabulary referring to six basic emotions plus one complex emotion (joy, happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and shame) is assessed; in the second part, the emotional terms all refer to complex emotions (guilt, envy, jealousy, contempt, hate, longing and pride).
Test of emotion comprehension
Time Frame: The administration has a duration of 15-20 minutes.
The Test of emotion comprehension (TEC) is an instrument to assess a child's understanding of emotions, in its various aspects, that is, the nature, causes, and ways of controlling and regulating emotions. It is used for children aged 3-4 to 10-11 years. It is administered by telling a story in pictures, the child responds by indicating and finally, it takes about 15-20 minutes.
Secondary Outcomes
No secondary outcomes reported
Investigators
Flavia Marino
Head of Unit
Istituto per la Ricerca e l'Innovazione Biomedica