Joint Attention Using Human-Robot Interaction: Impact of Sensory Preferences of Children with Autism

International audienceIndividuals suffering from Autistic SpectrumDisorder (ASD) have impaired skills in social communicationand joint attention. In this paper, we explain how we designedand evaluated a Joint Attention (JA) task for individuals withASD using the Nao humanoid robot. The interaction was testedin children and teenagers with ASD (N=11). Theirproprioceptive and visual integration of cues were firstassessed, with the hypothesis that individuals with anoverreliance on proprioceptive cues and with a hyporeactivityto visual cues would have more difficulties conductingsuccessful interactions with the robot. We observed thatparticipants with an overreliance on proprioceptive cues andhyporeactivity to visual cues showed different behaviors inresponding to joint attention. They followed the prompting ofthe Nao robot more slowly than individuals with anoverreliance on visual cues and a hyporeactivity toproprioceptive cues. Defining such individual profiles prior tothe social interaction with a robot and working closely withcaregivers could provide promising strategies for designingsuccessful and adapted Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) forindividuals with ASD