The effect of teaching activities using a humanoid robot on the social skills of children with autism

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are particularly affected by the lack of social skills. In parallel with technological developments, research on the use of robots as intervention tools that help children with ASD to develop social skills has increased in the last few years. However, studies on the long-term effects of robot-mediated interventions on the social communication development of children with ASD are limited. The general aim of this study is to develop a humanoid robot-mediated teaching intervention for teaching emotion expression skills in children with ASD. The activities carried out with the humanoid robot named Pepper in teaching the state-based sad emotional state to children with ASD were prepared by following the "ASSURE" instructional design model. At various stages of the design model, the opinions of special education academicians, teachers and experts in the field of instructional technologies were consulted. Case study design was used in the thesis. During the study, data were collected through interviews and observations. Descriptive analysis methods were used to reach the concepts and relationships that can explain the data obtained. In the study, it was found that the child with ASD interacted with the robot to a high degree and responded to the robot's feedbacks with appreciation and excitement. The robot's audible and moving feedbacks attracted the attention of the child with ASD and increased his motivation. As a result of the interviews with the special education teacher, it was determined that the humanoid robot made positive contributions to the teaching of the lessons and the classroom environment. In addition, the teacher stated that robot-mediated education increased the motivation and participation of the child with ASD. The results obtained from the research show that a social robot can be used as an effective educational tool for educators in teaching children with ASD to recognise and express their emotions and to reduce children's problems in social skills. In the robot-mediated activities developed within the scope of the study, the design, animations, sound features and screenshots of the activities were found to appeal to the special situation and age group of the student with ASD.