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Longing to Connect: Could Social Robots Improve Social Bonding, Attachment, and Communication Among Children with Autism and Their Parents?

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Social Robotics (ICSR 2021)

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Abstract

Social robots are showing promise in assisting children with an autism spectrum disorder to improve social, language, and behavioral skills. However, this emerging technology has yet to find a permanent place in the homes of children with autism in part because the long-term benefits of robot-assisted therapy are still undetermined. We present this autoethnographic case of a 10-year-old boy with autism and his mother to explore the perceived benefits of the long-term, in-home use of a social robot as it relates to the facilitation of parent-child bonding, attachment, communication, and social learning.

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Acknowledgments

I want to thank José Manuel del Río, CEO, and Pablo García, CTO of Aisoy Robotics, for their invaluable guidance, personal instruction, and willingness to share knowledge that allowed me to learn to create robot interactions to delight and engage my son, Juan.

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Correspondence to Yeol Huh .

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Armstrong, L., Huh, Y. (2021). Longing to Connect: Could Social Robots Improve Social Bonding, Attachment, and Communication Among Children with Autism and Their Parents?. 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_57

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90525-5_57

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-90524-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-90525-5

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