Autonomous social robots detect and intervene autism

To examine whether the robot-based intervention (RBI) is effective in promoting eye contact in autistic children, in comparison to the human-based intervention (HBI). There are four hypotheses. H1: Autistic children in the HBI will have fewer eye contact with the agent and less attentive duration than those in the RBI over the four-month intervention. H2: Autistic children in the HBI will be prompted more often by the agent and will be less likely to respond to the prompts than those in the RBI. H3: Autistic children in the RBI will have more eye contact with adults (their parents and human experimenter) than those in the HBI at the end of intervention. Such learning outcome will be maintained one month after the intervention. RBI is more effective for autistic children with more severe autism severity and intellectual disabilities than those with less severe autism severity and intellectual disabilities.