Social Stories in Robot Assisted Therapy for Children with ASD

Mobile technology devices are commonly used as assistive technology to support children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in gaining skills in interpersonal communication. While considered gener- ally safe and e ective, there are concerns that a child that is taught to communicate through interactive technologies may become dependent on the virtual world and its rewards, while interpersonal skills are sacri ced or not generalized to real world settings (Bauminger-Zviely, Eden, Zancanaro, Weiss, & Gal, 2013). This chapter theorizes that the anthropomorphic embodiment of humanoid robots may provide a compromise between the real and the virtual worlds. The authors suggest that a humanoid robot can use social stories within an Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) framework to support the acquisition of social interaction skills of children with ASD. The objective of this chapter is to contribute to the current literature by providing a description of this intervention and make suggestions for its implementation using a case study approach