Skip to main content

Evaluating Robot Acceptance in Children with ASD and Their Parents

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Social Robotics (ICSR 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 13818))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Acceptance is an important ergonomic matter for an effective use of technologies, especially in the case of assistive robots. Work on acceptance with children with autistic spectrum disorder, including their parents, is still lacking. Therefore, this study aims at evaluating robots’ acceptance with parents and children with and without autistic spectrum disorder. We proceeded by evaluating acceptance and anthropomorphism before and after a free interaction with the Pepper robot, for neurotypical children (N = 13) and children with autism (N = 5) and their parents. Preliminary results indicate that acceptance metrics showed a rather positive appreciation of the robot by the children but less positive for their parents. Limitations and recommendations are proposed at the end of the study.

E. Zehnder, M. Jouaiti—These authors contributed equally.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. van den Berk-Smeekens, I., et al.: Adherence and acceptability of a robot-assisted pivotal response treatment protocol for children with autism spectrum disorder. Sci. Rep. 10(1), 1–11 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bishop, L., van Maris, A., Dogramadzi, S., Zook, N.: Social robots: the influence of human and robot characteristics on acceptance. Paladyn J. Behav. Robot. 10(1), 346–358 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Boccanfuso, L., Scarborough, S., Abramson, R.K., Hall, A.V., Wright, H.H., O’Kane, J.M.: A low-cost socially assistive robot and robot-assisted intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder: field trials and lessons learned. Autonom. Robots 41(3), 637–655 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Breazeal, C., Harris, P.L., DeSteno, D., Kory Westlund, J.M., Dickens, L., Jeong, S.: Young children treat robots as informants. Topics Cogn. Sci. 8(2), 481–491 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Davis, F.D.: Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Q. 319–340 (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  6. De Graaf, M.M., Allouch, S.B.: Exploring influencing variables for the acceptance of social robots. Robot. Autonom. Syst. 61(12), 1476–1486 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Fridin, M., Angel, H., Azery, S.: Acceptance, interaction, and authority of educational robots: an ethnography study of child-robot interaction. In: IEEE Workshop on Advanced Robotics and Its Social Impacts, California (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Fridin, M., Belokopytov, M.: Acceptance of socially assistive humanoid robot by preschool and elementary school teachers. Comput. Hum. Behav. 33, 23–31 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Goudey, A., Bonnin, G.: Must smart objects look human? study of the impact of anthropomorphism on the acceptance of companion robots. Recherche et Appl. en Mark. (Engl. Ed.) 31(2), 2–20 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Heerink, M., Kröse, B., Evers, V., Wielinga, B.: Assessing acceptance of assistive social agent technology by older adults: the almere model. Int. J. Soc. Robot. 2(4), 361–375 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Huijnen, C.A., Lexis, M.A., Jansens, R., de Witte, L.P.: Roles, strengths and challenges of using robots in interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). J. Autism Dev. Disord. 49(1), 11–21 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Huskens, B., Palmen, A., Van der Werff, M., Lourens, T., Barakova, E.: Improving collaborative play between children with autism spectrum disorders and their siblings: the effectiveness of a robot-mediated intervention based on lego® therapy. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 45(11), 3746–3755 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Kory-Westlund, J.M., Breazeal, C.: Assessing children’s perceptions and acceptance of a social robot. In: Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 38–50 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kumazaki, H., et al.: A pilot study for robot appearance preferences among high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorder: implications for therapeutic use. PloS One 12(10), e0186581 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Lallemand, C., Gronier, G.: Méthodes de design UX: 30 méthodes fondamentales pour concevoir et évaluer les systèmes interactifs. Editions Eyrolles (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Liu, B., Markopoulos, P., Tetteroo, D.: How anthropomorphism affects user acceptance of a robot trainer in physical rehabilitation. In: HEALTHINF, pp. 30–40 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Liu, K., Tao, D.: The roles of trust, personalization, loss of privacy, and anthropomorphism in public acceptance of smart healthcare services. Comput. Hum. Behav. 127, 107026 (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Meuter, M.L., Bitner, M.J., Ostrom, A.L., Brown, S.W.: Choosing among alternative service delivery modes: an investigation of customer trial of self-service technologies. J. Mark. 69(2), 61–83 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Nomura, T., Shintani, T., Fujii, K., Hokabe, K.: Experimental investigation of relationships between anxiety, negative attitudes, and allowable distance of robots. In: Proceedings of the 2nd IASTED International Conference on Human Computer Interaction, Chamonix, France. ACTA Press, pp. 13–18. Citeseer (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Oros, M., Nikolić, M., Borovac, B., Jerković, I.: Children’s preference of appearance and parents’ attitudes towards assistive robots. In: 2014 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, pp. 360–365. IEEE (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Raub, A.C.: Correlates of Computer Anxiety in College Students (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Ricks, D.J., Colton, M.B.: Trends and considerations in robot-assisted autism therapy. In: 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 4354–4359. IEEE (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Thompson, D.V., Hamilton, R.W., Rust, R.T.: Feature fatigue: when product capabilities become too much of a good thing. J. Mark. Res. 42(4), 431–442 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Troshani, I., Rao Hill, S., Sherman, C., Arthur, D.: Do we trust in AI? role of anthropomorphism and intelligence. J. Comput. Inf. Syst. 61(5), 481–491 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Tung, F.W.: Child perception of humanoid robot appearance and behavior. Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Interact. 32(6), 493–502 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Venkatesh, V., Morris, M.G., Davis, G.B., Davis, F.D.: User acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. MIS Q. 425–478 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Westlund, J.M.K., Martinez, M., Archie, M., Das, M., Breazeal, C.: Effects of framing a robot as a social agent or as a machine on children’s social behavior. In: 2016 25th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), pp. 688–693. IEEE (2016)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank all the children and parents who willingly took part in this study and filled in so many questionnaires.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eloise Zehnder .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Zehnder, E., Jouaiti, M., Charpillet, F. (2022). Evaluating Robot Acceptance in Children with ASD and Their Parents. In: Cavallo, F., et al. Social Robotics. ICSR 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13818. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24670-8_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24670-8_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-24669-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-24670-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics