Effects of a Humanoid Robot-Assisted Teaching Procedure on the Symbolic Play Skills of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The potential of humanoid robots to facilitate symbolic play has been explored in intervention research involving children with autism spectrum disorder. Accordingly, this study employed a multiple-baseline design across participants to examine the effects of a humanoid robot-assisted least-to-most prompting procedure on the symbolic play skills of three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The findings demonstrated improvements in the children's symbolic play performance following the intervention. Furthermore, the children maintained the acquired target skills at 100% accuracy over time and generalised them across people and settings. Additionally, the participants' mothers and teachers reported positive perceptions of the intervention.