TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhancing Communication Skills of Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders While Maintaining Social Distancing Using Two Tele-Operated Robots
AU - Kumazaki, Hirokazu
AU - Muramatsu, Taro
AU - Yoshikawa, Yuichiro
AU - Haraguchi, Hideyuki
AU - Sono, Taichi
AU - Matsumoto, Yoshio
AU - Ishiguro, Hiroshi
AU - Kikuchi, Mitsuru
AU - Sumiyoshi, Tomiki
AU - Mimura, Masaru
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (19H04880) and ERATO ISHIGURO Symbiotic Human-Robot Interaction Project.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Kumazaki, Muramatsu, Yoshikawa, Haraguchi, Sono, Matsumoto, Ishiguro, Kikuchi, Sumiyoshi and Mimura.
PY - 2021/1/25
Y1 - 2021/1/25
N2 - COVID-19 has affected many areas of daily life, including communication and learning. Social distancing is essential to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In these situations, teaching communication skills is essential for helping individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) reach their full potential. To provide communication education while maintaining social distancing, we developed a communication training system using a tele-operated robot. In this system, we prepared a PC and a robot for each participant. The participants were grouped in pairs and communicated with each other through the tele-operated robot. The objective of this study was to test whether this system can maintain motivation for training in individuals with ASD and whether our system was useful for improving communication skills. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the taking a class by teachers alone (TCT) group or robot-mediated communication exercise (RMC) group. Participants in the TCT group took a class about communication skills from their teacher. Participants in the RMC group, in addition to taking a class by teacher, were grouped in pairs and communicated with each other through the tele-operated robot once a week over 4 weeks (for a total of five sessions). In total, twenty individuals with ASD participated in the study. One-way ANOVA revealed that there were significantly greater improvements in being good at describing their thoughts to others, which was self-rated (F = 6.583; p = 0.019), and good at listening to the thoughts or feelings of others, which was rated by themselves (F = 5.635; p = 0.029) and their teacher (F = 5.333; p = 0.033). As expected, the motivation for training using this system was maintained during a session. Overall, this study revealed that our system was useful for improving communication skills (e.g., listening to the thoughts or feelings of others). Teaching communication skills under pandemic conditions is important, and this study demonstrated the feasibility of communication training using tele-operated robots.
AB - COVID-19 has affected many areas of daily life, including communication and learning. Social distancing is essential to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In these situations, teaching communication skills is essential for helping individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) reach their full potential. To provide communication education while maintaining social distancing, we developed a communication training system using a tele-operated robot. In this system, we prepared a PC and a robot for each participant. The participants were grouped in pairs and communicated with each other through the tele-operated robot. The objective of this study was to test whether this system can maintain motivation for training in individuals with ASD and whether our system was useful for improving communication skills. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the taking a class by teachers alone (TCT) group or robot-mediated communication exercise (RMC) group. Participants in the TCT group took a class about communication skills from their teacher. Participants in the RMC group, in addition to taking a class by teacher, were grouped in pairs and communicated with each other through the tele-operated robot once a week over 4 weeks (for a total of five sessions). In total, twenty individuals with ASD participated in the study. One-way ANOVA revealed that there were significantly greater improvements in being good at describing their thoughts to others, which was self-rated (F = 6.583; p = 0.019), and good at listening to the thoughts or feelings of others, which was rated by themselves (F = 5.635; p = 0.029) and their teacher (F = 5.333; p = 0.033). As expected, the motivation for training using this system was maintained during a session. Overall, this study revealed that our system was useful for improving communication skills (e.g., listening to the thoughts or feelings of others). Teaching communication skills under pandemic conditions is important, and this study demonstrated the feasibility of communication training using tele-operated robots.
KW - COVID-19
KW - autism spectrum disorders
KW - communication skill
KW - motivation
KW - robot
KW - social distancing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100683688&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85100683688&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.598688
DO - 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.598688
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100683688
SN - 1664-0640
VL - 11
JO - Frontiers in Psychiatry
JF - Frontiers in Psychiatry
M1 - 598688
ER -
