Emotional Skills Training with Social Robot

Istituto per la Ricerca e l'Innovazione Biomedica

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder

Treatments: Other: Traditional intervention; Other: NAO intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06179953

CNR-IRIB-PRO-2023-010

Details and patient eligibility

About

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that involves difficulties especially in the sphere of social interaction, social communication, and restricted and stereotyped behavior patterns.

In particular, emotional regulation is a central developmental skill. In fact, the emotional dysregulation observed in children with autism results in increased social and behavioral difficulties over time.

Therefore, the present protocol aims to test the role of a human-assisted social robot as a mediator of social-emotional understanding intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

The children, will be divided into two groups, an experimental one in which training will be conducted through the use of social robot and control group which will be conducted through traditional therapy.

Enrollment: 20 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 5 to 10 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Language in sentences
• use of connectors
• ability to narrate events not present
• ADOS level: module 2
• Griffiths: QS>75

Exclusion criteria

• presence of other medical disorders

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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20 participants in 2 patient groups

Experimental group with social robot

Experimental group

Description:

The emotional skills protocol aims to achieve the following objectives: * Acquisition of appropriate emotional skills and understanding of emotions; * Construction of functional thoughts related to emotions; * Enhancement of interpersonal and social skills. It is aimed at a sample of children diagnosed with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) between the ages of 5 and 10. The experimental group will carry out training through the use of social robots. The robot provides instructions and if the child requests it, it gives prompts.

Treatment:

Other: NAO intervention

Control group without social robot

Other group

Description:

The emotional skills protocol aims to achieve the following objectives: * Acquisition of appropriate emotional skills and understanding of emotions; Construction of functional thoughts related to emotions; * Enhancement of interpersonal and social skills. It is aimed at a sample of children diagnosed with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) between the ages of 5 and 10. Control group which will be conducted through traditional therapy. The therapist provides instructions, and if the child has difficulty responding, he gives prompts.

Treatment:

Other: Traditional intervention