Emotional Skills Training with Social Robot

ConditionAutism Spectrum Disorder

Trial statusRecruiting

Trial phaseNot applicable

Trial typeInterventional

Biological sexAll

Age5-10

SponsorIstituto per la Ricerca e l'Innovazione Biomedica

About this trial

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that involves difficulties especially in the sphere of social interaction, social communication, and restricted and stereotyped behavior patterns.

In particular, emotional regulation is a central developmental skill. In fact, the emotional dysregulation observed in children with autism results in increased social and behavioral difficulties over time.

Therefore, the present protocol aims to test the role of a human-assisted social robot as a mediator of social-emotional understanding intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

The children, will be divided into two groups, an experimental one in which training will be conducted through the use of social robot and control group which will be conducted through traditional therapy.

Eligibility criteria

This trial accepts healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

Language in sentences

use of connectors

ability to narrate events not present

ADOS level: module 2

Disqualifiers

presence of other medical disorders

Trial design

Design model

Parallel

Treatments tested in this trial

NAO intervention
Other intervention
The protocol is divided into 4 stages: 1. EMOTION RECOGNITION - "Mime Game": activity aimed at acquiring the ability to label basic emotions. 2. EMOTION/SITUATION ASSOCIATION - "How do I feel when...?" game: presentation of social situations to acquire the ability to attribute the emotion associated with the situation presented. 3. DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN EMOTIONS AND THOUGHTS - "Think-Feel Game": activity aimed at differentiating thoughts from emotions and acquiring the skill of linking a thought to an emotion. 4. LEARNING A REPERTOIRE OF USEFUL THOUGHTS: acquisition of useful thoughts related to certain emotional situations. The robot provides instructions and if the child requests it, it elects prompts.
Traditional intervention
Other intervention
The protocol is divided into 4 stages: 1. EMOTION RECOGNITION - "Mime Game": activity aimed at acquiring the ability to label basic emotions. 2. EMOTION/SITUATION ASSOCIATION - "How do I feel when...?" game: presentation of social situations to acquire the ability to attribute the emotion associated with the situation presented. 3. DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN EMOTIONS AND THOUGHTS - "Think-Feel Game": activity aimed at differentiating thoughts from emotions and acquiring the skill of linking a thought to an emotion. 4. LEARNING A REPERTOIRE OF USEFUL THOUGHTS: acquisition of useful thoughts related to certain emotional situations. The therapist provides instructions, and if the child has difficulty responding, he or she may ask the operator for prompts.

Treatment groups

20 Participants

are divided into 2 treatment groups

Group A: Experimental group with social robotExperimental treatment 1 intervention

Group B: Control group without social robotOther 1 intervention

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

Test of Emotional Vocabulary

The Test of Emotional Vocabulary contains an initial board, with which the child is introduced to the two protagonists of the subsequent stories, a boy and a girl; there is then a pretest board and 14 storyboards. For each of them, the examiner reads the short story to the child and then asks the child to choose, from two alternative emotional words, the one that best expresses what the protagonist of the story is feeling. In the first part, the child's understanding of emotional vocabulary referring to six basic emotions plus one complex emotion (joy, happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and shame) is assessed; in the second part, the emotional terms all refer to complex emotions (guilt, envy, jealousy, contempt, hate, longing and pride).

Time frame

The administration has a duration of 15 minutes.

Test of emotion comprehension

The Test of emotion comprehension (TEC) is an instrument to assess a child's understanding of emotions, in its various aspects, that is, the nature, causes, and ways of controlling and regulating emotions. It is used for children aged 3-4 to 10-11 years. It is administered by telling a story in pictures, the child responds by indicating and finally, it takes about 15-20 minutes.

Time frame

The administration has a duration of 15-20 minutes.

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

Istituto per la Ricerca e l'Innovazione Biomedica

Lead sponsor

Messina, Italy

Collaborator

Source ClinicalTrials.gov

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