Using Storytelling Robot for Supporting Autistic Children in Theory of Mind

Abstract

Autistic children have deficit in the understanding of how other people think and feel which is an important factor for social interaction and social communication. The understanding of how other people think and feel is called theory of mind. The storytelling activity could help the autistic children to learn about the theory of mind from the communication between the characters in the story stand point. This study investigated the use of BLISS robot with mobile application in the storytelling activity for supporting the theory of mind in autistic children. Five children between 4 and 12 years old were recruited. All children listened to the story and answered questions about theory of mind from their parents in first week. For second week, all children listened to the story and answered question from BLISS robot that was controlled by their parents. Experimental result suggested that all children stay engaged throughout the storytelling activity. It was shown that BLISS robot can be used to reduce the burden of parent in storytelling activity. Moreover, some autistic children can answer all questions about theory of mind correctly.