Investigating the Feasibility of a Wizard-of-Oz Robotic Interface (R2C3) in a Social Skills Group for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Socially assistive robots (SARs) have been shown to be promising tools to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) learn social skills but their effect within groups remains unclear. Here, we aimed to investigate the use of the QTrobot with the Rehabilitation Robotic Companion for Children and Caregivers (R2C3) robotic platform in the context of a social skills group (SSG) for children with ASD. Six children with ASD between 6 and 11 years old were included in this exploratory study, and were randomly exposed to two conditions, active and inactive robotic interface, over ten weeks. We monitored the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2) communication and social scores and the number of engagement initiations and responses to social requests after each session. We also qualitatively explored the feasibility and usability of the Wizard of Oz R2C3 in the SSG setting and evaluated the interface design quality using the Design Information Communication Technology Inventory (DICTI). The robot did not hinder the effectiveness of the SSG, as evidenced by the participants’ significant improvement in social skills. The use of R2C3 in active mode was successful and led to a marked increase in engagement based on children’s social initiations, but did not show a significant increase in responses to social requests and ADOS-2 scores. Qualitatively, we observed that the robot promoted children’s social initiations, notably during the early sessions. However, the design of the R2C3 interface posed some limitations. DICTI scores particularly emphasized the lack of personalization by the user and the inability to manage the complexity of the robot’s behaviors, and of the time lag between the Wizard of Oz control and the behavior execution, making the robot’s reactions challenging to integrate into the group’s conversations. This exploratory study is promising as it suggests that the QTrobot with R2C3 interface promotes social initiations in children with ASD. Future studies should delve deeper into this use with a better-suited multi-party interface and more participants.