THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL ROBOTS INTERVENTION ON IMPROVING THE EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM DISORDER

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that involves persistent challenges
in social interactions, speech, nonverbal communication, and restricted and repetitive behaviors. In this
research, we studied the effect of social robots intervention on the executive functions of children with
autism disorder.
Materials & Methods: This study is an experimental research method with pre- and post-test allocated
to an experimental and a control group. The sample of this study consisted of twenty autistic children
who were referred to the Centre of Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation of Autism Disorder in
Tehran. These samples were selected from the children within the age 6 and 9 years by a sampling
procedure. They were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups (10 subjects in each
group). We used Nao social robots for robotic intervention. We utilized executive functions and
continuous performance tests to evaluate the improvements of these children in twelve intervention
sessions. To analyze the data Multivariate covariance was used.
Results: The results demonstrated that social robots have a positive influence on the executive function
(attention and inhibition response) of children with autism disorder (p<0/001, η= 0/93).
Conclusion: These findings emphasize the role of new technologies, especially robots, in empowering
and improving the executive function of autistic children.