ROBOTICS TO PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL SKILLS IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

In the work will be proposed a robot that assists an educator in her work with children with Autism Spectrum (ASD) Disorders. More in general, using robots in the context just described poses new cognitive, ethical, political, social and economic challenges such as described in detail in the European Parliament resolution of 16 February 2017 with recommendations to the Commission on Civil Law Rules on Robotics (2015/2103 (INL)). Robotics could be scary but it can also be an opportunity, especially when it replaces an educator in very repetitive activities (Ranieri, 2020, p.9), think about when the educator follows a behaviorist approach that is the ABA approach. In particular, robots allow continuous feedback both in the educator-student direction and in the reverse student-educator direction allowing a more effective process due to the robot acting as an interface between educator and student becoming a vicariant (Berthoz, 2012; Sibilio, 2014) interface. Mind and machine must work together in the direction of cognitive enlargement (Ranieri, 2020, p.10). The binomial "robot and autism" is configured as a new therapeutic approach that is giving encouraging results in the development of therapies applied to subjects with autism. Specifically, children with ASD are able to interact more easily with robots than humans this is due to the absence of emotions and the predictability of the robot's actions that make it seem more reassuring. In this field of research, numerous studies have been conducted on the usefulness of robotics to promote the development of social skills in autistic subjects, confirming that social robots are able to open a communication channel with children and to make them learn new social behaviors. In these studies, positive aspects emerged from the use of robots such as social acceptability, motor communication by imitation, and maintaining shared attention. Consequently, robots can act as assistive technologies and foster the development of social skills in autistic children through daily activities, as they seem able to adapt in a modular way to the different needs of users and to provide physical and cognitive support. Based on these assumptions, the LabH of the Department of Human, Philosophical and Education Sciences of the University of Salerno designed a robot designed with the aim of promoting the development of social skills in subjects affected by ASD. This robot called ASD-Robot is an open-source project (http://www.labh.it/asdrobot/).