IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2018 - 36

Robot therapy must take into account
the diversity of autistic children's
difficulties.
children had a wide range of behavioral, social, learning, affective, and cognitive difficulties. When developing a robot therapy it is vital that the diversity of children
be taken into account because at present it feels as if it
is a one size (one type robot) fits all scenarios for children with autism despite their varied challenges.
Humanistic Impulses Behind Robot Therapy
Might be Driven by Resource Issues and Not
the Best Interests of the Children.
When we asked parents about any concerns about
robot therapy, some pointed to concerns that technologies were favored over other therapeutic forms as
they are less labor intensive, such as Speech and Language Therapy or traditional Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy. As an ethics team we anticipate it might
be more expensive at present to deliver ABA robot
therapy than typical ABA therapy as there are multiple
technological devices involved (robot, computer, hard
drive, kinnect system, etc.), as well as the use of an
extra person at the keyboard controlling the Wizard of
Oz system.
Parents Wondered to what Extent Introducing
a Robot into a Child's Life at an Early Age Could
Impact on Their Learning.
As the child receiving robot therapy interacts with the
robot for short periods of time, we do not envisage
this to be a problem for now. In the longer term, if
robots become more sophisticated, then perhaps
more ethical study needs to be done on the impacts
of longer term exposure of a robot on the child's
development. However, if demonstrable effects are
noticed during the DREAM project, it will be important
to highlight and discuss these.
Parents of children with autism were often in receipt
of several therapies. The main therapy of U.K. parents
was Speech and Language Therapy which is provided by
the National Health Service. Most parents are offered
and receive only a few sessions. Other therapies parents
cited included music therapy, horse therapy, sensory
diets,1 and the movement method (a parent-inspired
therapy focusing on learning and movement).
1

A sensory diet gives a child sensory experiences, developed by Patricia Wilbarger, they are designed to give a child enough sensory stimulation to assist the
child in emotional, cognitive and motor self-regulation. Sensory diets are provided by teachers at schools for children with autism and other learning disabilities.

As researchers developing the technology and therapy of ABA, it is important to know that parental views on
ABA as a therapy were mixed. Some parents identified it
as an expensive and time-consuming therapy. Some
even referred to it as "robotic" as it relies on repeating
the same behaviors over and over again and rewarding
positive behaviors.

Reactions to Baron-Cohen's Perspectives on Autism
Spectrum Disorders
Central to the DREAM theoretical starting place is the
importance of Simon Baron-Cohen's particular perspectives on autism:
The rationale of using robots for ASD therapies is
based on the systemizing theory of Baron-Cohen:
children with ASD prefer the interaction with a
robot over humans because, in contrast to the
human social world, robots are highly lawful systems. Being simpler and more predictable than
humans, robots have the potential to become
interactive partners for ASD children and can
serve as an intermediate step for developing better
social interaction with humans. The working
assumption is that, based on the positive responses of children with ASD towards robots, the child
will be more motivated and engaged in learning
activities, so the abilities will be mastered earlier with less time and human resources [42].
In our interviews, parents and academics challenged
Baron-Cohen's perspectives on autism as typifying an
autistic person as lacking in empathy [33], lacking in
theory of mind [7], and disinterested in social and communicative relationships. Baron-Cohen's "deficit" model
of autism, or describing children with autism as lacking
empathy is now challenged in many quarters of the
autism community who advocate the social model of
disability: "The central tenet of the social model of disability is therefore its rejection of the conception of disability as an individual problem, and instead seeing
disability as a social construction" [6].
All the parents interviewed in the DREAM study agreed
that their children enjoy interacting with computers (iPads,
PCs, video games), but they also encouraged and supported their children's experiences with nature and animals.
During our participant observation of experiments in
Romania, and in the U.K. (the Explorers workshop) children preferred their primary caregivers and voluntarily
spent more time close to their caregiver (or requested to
be close to their caregivers) than any game or activity.
These findings suggest that, as with typically developing
children, autistic children may initially get excited when
first using a new technology, but may lose interest and

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march 2018

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