NCT06974240

Social Robotics for Autism

Social Robotics Intervention for Improving Socio-Pragmatic Skills in Autism: A Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 20 (actual)
• Sponsor: Istituto per la Ricerca e l'Innovazione Biomedica · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 8 Years – 13 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Socio-pragmatics focuses on the study of language in the context of social interactions. It explores how individuals use language to communicate effectively in specific social situations, taking into consideration the social, cultural and contextual factors that influence communication. Socio-pragmatics analyzes linguistic and nonlinguistic behaviors, such as gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, and posture, to understand intended meaning, social implications, and shared communicative norms. Children with autism often present difficulties in social-pragmatic skills. The integration of advanced technologies can play a crucial role in innovative approaches to the development of this skill. In this experimental protocol, an attempt will be made to demonstrate the effectiveness of training through the use of social robots by comparing the performance of an ASD group performing a treatment using social robots with a control group performing the same in a traditional manner.

Conditions

• Autism
• Autism Spectrum Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Experimental Group	The training sessions were carried out following a strict order. The first phase was dedicated to improving group social skills. The beginning of the session was dedicated to greetings between participants and questions of social interest. During the second phase, videos were shown and participants answered targeted questions asked by the Nao Robot to understand if the child had correctly interpreted the general meaning of the story and to determine the degree of awareness that the expression should be understood in a non-literal sense. In the third phase, a role play was performed among the participants, which re-enacted the situations seen in the videos, involving all the members of the group in turn. During the last phase, participants were asked to share experiences in their lives in which they had used or could have used the pragmatic skill just analyzed. The protocol included 15 phases over 31 sessions, each lasting 45 minutes, twice a week.
OTHER	control group	The entire intervention was carried out in a group entirely mediated by an operator without the use of a social robot. The first phase is dedicated to improving group social skills. The beginning of the session was dedicated to greetings between participants and questions of social interest. During the second phase, stories were read and participants answered target questions to understand if the child had correctly interpreted the general meaning of the story and to determine the degree of awareness that the expression should be understood in a non-literal sense. In the third phase, a role play was performed among the participants, in which all members of the group participated in turn, recalling the situations seen in the videos. During the last phase, participants were asked to share experiences from their lives in which they used or could use the pragmatic skill just analyzed. The protocol included 15 phases over 31 sessions, each lasting 45 minutes, twice a week.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-01-20
• Primary completion: 2024-10-30
• Completion: 2024-11-30
• First posted: 2025-05-15
• Last updated: 2025-05-15

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Italy