The Effects of Robot-Child Interactions on the Solo and Social Drumming Synchrony of Typically Developing Children and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Between 4 to 8 Years of Age

Background:  

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) present with generalized praxis deficits (i.e.; difficulty performing complex movement sequences) including praxis on imitation (Mostofsky et al., 2006). In addition, children with ASDs also present with significant motor coordination deficits including bilateral coordination, visuomotor coordination, and multilimb coordination (Ghaziuddin & Butler, 1998). Together, these impairments may contribute to poor solo synchrony (movements done on your own) and may also lead to poor social synchrony (movements done with a partner) due to the increased social monitoring demands of such activities. Currently, we are developing novel contexts involving robot-child interactions to facilitate solo and social synchrony in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) between 4 to 8 years of age.

Objectives:  

To examine the effects of robot-child interactions on the solo and social synchrony of typically developing children (TD) and children with ASDs between 4 to 8 years of age during drumming actions.

Methods:  

12 TD children and 4 children with ASDs received 12 training sessions over a period of 6 weeks @ of 2 sessions per week. The training involved interactions of two children with a 24-inch tall humanoid robot called Nao (Aldebran Robotics, Inc.). The 30-45-minute training session comprised of various training conditions: greetings, warm up, rhythmic action, drumming, walking, and farewells. Solo and social synchrony were measured using a standardized rhythmic coordination measure, the bilateral motor coordination subtest of the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests. In addition, solo and social synchrony during drumming was assessed in a task-specific and generalized synchrony test using kinematic analysis of slow and fast, simple and complex drumming motions. In the task specific context, children were videotaped while imitating robot’s drumming actions in training sessions 1, 6 and 12. These were later coded for solo synchrony using measures of hand movement variability. We also assessed social synchrony through the percent of time the two children spent in full synchrony. In the generalized context, percent of time spent in solo and social synchrony was evaluated using Continuous Relative Phase (CRP) analysis for drumming actions.  CRP values ranged from 0°-180° (Scholz & Kelso, 1989) and were grouped into three bins: 0°-60° (for in-phase coordination), 60°-120° (asynchronous state), and 120°-180° (for anti-phase coordination). In-phase coordination is expected in bilaterally symmetrical or synchronous hand motions while anti-phase coordination is expected in bilaterally asymmetrical and alternating hand motions.

Results:  

Based on our preliminary data, we expect both groups of children to show greater solo and social synchrony during the posttest as compared to the pretest within task-specific and generalized contexts. Moreover, social synchrony will be more difficult to sustain as compared to solo synchrony in both groups of children. Particularly, children with ASDs will perform poorly during social synchrony contexts as compared to solo synchrony contexts.

Conclusions:

Our findings suggest that movement-based interventions performed within social contexts could facilitate interpersonal synchrony in children with ASDs. Moreover, robot-child interactions could be a potential tool to address motor and social impairments of children with ASDs.