Ognjen Rudovic|Jaeryoung Lee|Lea Mascarell-Maricic|Björn Schuller|Rosalind W. Picard
Measuring Engagement in Robot-Assisted Autism Therapy: A Cross-Cultural Study
Massachusetts Institute of Technology|Chubu University|Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin|Imperial College London|University of Passau|Massachusetts Institute of Technology
occupational therapy children autism often necessary elicit maintain engagement children benefit session recently social robots used however existing robots lack ability autonomously recognize childrens level engagement necessary choosing optimal interaction strategy progress automated engagement reading impeded part due lack studies childrobot engagement autism therapy large individual differences within autistic population little known variation across cultures analyzed engagement children age 313 two different cultural backgrounds asia japan n17 eastern europe serbia n19 children participated 25 minute therapy session studied relationship childrens behavioural engagement taskdriven different facets affective engagement valence arousal although results indicate statistically significant differences engagement displays two groups difficult make causal claims differences due large variation age behavioural severity children study however exploratory analysis reveals important associations target engagement perceived levels valence arousal indicating used proxy childrens engagement therapy provide suggestions leveraged optimize social robots autism therapy taking account cultural differences