Designing robot-assisted pivotal response training in game activity for children with autism

Robot assisted therapy for patients with autism is promising, but there is a need for well designed studies that combine expert knowledge from the field of robotics and autism. Here, an iterative, participatory design process of robot assisted Pivotal Response Training (PRT) for autism therapy is presented. The scenarios for the robot assisted PRT intervention were created using a scenario based design approach through intensive collaboration between robot engineer and therapist. The developed scenarios were then represented in a hierarchical model using Activity Theory. Based on that model, the PRT intervention was implemented by the end-user programming software and evaluated with a child with autism. The scenario based design and the use of Activity Theory framework considerably speeded up the scenario creation process and the redesign time needed between the pilots compared to our previous experiments.