Promoting adaptive and social communication skills in young adults with autism spectrum disorder using programmable toy robots with social story, a pilot study

Background: In the last decade, the advances in technology have included robotics as an intervention tool to promote adaptive and social communication skills in subjects with Autism spectrum disorder. The goal of this study is to promote community living skills in adolescents with ASD, using a Programmable toy robot as a model and narrative agent of a social story related to the target activity. Method: The study was conducted in an Italian public Social Health Service for adolescents with Neurodevelopmental disorder and included four adolescents with severe Autism spectrum disorder. The experiment concerned the application of the Lego Boots programmable toy robot as a model used for the interpretation of a social story related to the execution of a life activity in the community (making a purchase). Results: A multiple A-B-A baseline experimental design across subjects was used. All participants reached the target criteria: at least 80% of the total behaviors and 100% of social communication behaviors of the purchase activity identified through the task analysis procedure. Conclusion: Our results have confirmed the effectiveness of programmable toy robots modeling for teaching community living skills to adolescents with autism. They support the idea that robot-assisted intervention can combine social story with the modeling standard treatment to improve adaptive and social communication skills.