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User Requirements for Developing Robot-Assisted Interventions for Autistic Children

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Social Robotics (ICSR 2021)

Abstract

Various benefits are being envisioned for enhancing autism interventions with a robot. But what features should such interventions have if they are to be successful? While there are quite a few papers that describe specific user requirements or needs, a more comprehensive account thereof should help to inform the development of such interventions. We therefore present a literature review on the user requirements for robot-assisted interventions. We report on various themes that emerged from our analysis and discuss how enhancing an intervention with a robot might fulfil those requirements.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We use identity-first language, rather than person-first language, because it is less associated with stigma [12], and autistic adults prefer the use of disability-first terms, rather than person-first terms because they feel that being autistic is central to their identity [19].

  2. 2.

    In the remainder of this paper, we will refer to the adult users as “autism experts”, when addressing the whole group.

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Acknowledgements

This work was made possible through funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no: 688835 (DE-ENIGMA).

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Correspondence to Bob R. Schadenberg .

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Schadenberg, B.R., Reidsma, D., Heylen, D.K.J., Evers, V. (2021). User Requirements for Developing Robot-Assisted Interventions for Autistic Children. In: Li, H., et al. Social Robotics. ICSR 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13086. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90525-5_55

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90525-5_55

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