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A Robot-Based Play-Drama Intervention May Improve the Joint Attention and Functional Play Behaviors of Chinese-Speaking Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study

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Abstract

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in joint attention and play behaviors. We examined whether a robot-based play-drama intervention would promote these skills. Chinese-speaking preschool children were randomly assigned to an intervention group (N = 12) and a waitlist control group (N = 11). Children in the intervention group watched three robot dramas and engaged in role-plays with both robots and human experimenters over the course of 9 weeks. There were significant improvements in joint attention initiations and functional play behaviors in the intervention group. Parents of this group of children also reported less severe social impairments. It was therefore concluded that a robot-based play-drama intervention can enhance the joint attention and play behaviors of children with ASD.

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Notes

  1. An utterance consists of a clause that expresses a proposition and includes a predicate (Crystal 1980; Hartmann and Stork 1972; Pei and Gaynor 1954). Utterances containing more than one clause connected by a conjunction for example, and (Cantonese zung6 jau53) or but (daan6 hai6)—were segmented into two utterances.

  2. We have run some preliminary analyses and found that the number of utterances did not correlate to the performance in ESCS and SPA. One possible reason is that the joint attention measured in the ESCS and play skills measured in the SPA were non-verbal behaviors, which might not be related to the amount of speech produced.

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Acknowledgments

This research has been fully supported by grants awarded to the first author from the Office of Research and Knowledge Transfer Services (ORKTS) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund (SIE Fund) (Project No. KPF8146003). We are grateful for the help of our research assistants, Kit-Yi Wong, Fanny Lee, and Yik-Yu Mok. Special thanks go to all the participating children and their parents for their help and dedication to education.

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  1. Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong S.A.R.

    Wing-Chee So, Chun-Ho Cheng, Wan-Yi Lam, Ying Huang, Ka-Ching Ng, Hiu-Ching Tung & Wing Wong

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  1. Wing-Chee So
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  2. Chun-Ho Cheng
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Contributions

WC designed the study. WC and CH wrote the article. WY programmed the robots. TW, WW, YH, KC, HC, and WW coded the data. All of the authors were affiliated with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, S.A.R., at the time of the study All authors are now affiliated with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, S.A.R.

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Correspondence to Wing-Chee So.

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Appendix

Appendix

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Table 2 The scripts of the three dramas with gestures (shown in brackets)
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So, WC., Cheng, CH., Lam, WY. et al. A Robot-Based Play-Drama Intervention May Improve the Joint Attention and Functional Play Behaviors of Chinese-Speaking Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study. J Autism Dev Disord 50, 467–481 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04270-z

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