Paul Dickerson

From Isolation to Communication: A Case Study Evaluation of Robot Assisted Play for Children with Autism with a Minimally Expressive Humanoid Robot

The general context of the work presented in this paper is assistive robotics with our long-term aim to support children with autism. This paper is part of the Aurora project that studies ways in which robotic systems can encourage basic communication and social interaction skills in children with autism. This paper investigates how a small minimally expressive humanoid robot KASPAR can assume the role of a social mediator - encouraging children with low functioning autism to interact with the robot, to break their isolation and importantly, to facilitate interaction with other people. The article provides a case study evaluation of segments of trials where three children with autism, who usually do not interact with other people in their day to day activity, interacted with the robot and with co-present adults. A preliminary observational analysis was undertaken which applied, in abbreviated form, certain principles from conversation analysis - notably attention to the context in which the target behaviour occurred. The analysis was conducted by a social psychologist with expertise in using conversation analysis to understand interactions involving persons with an ASD. The analysis emphasises aspects of embodiment and interaction kinesics and revealed unexpected competencies on the part of the children. It showed how the robot served as a salient object mediating and encouraging interaction between the children and co-present adults.

Using conversation analysis to explore the recurrence of a topic in the talk of a boy with an autism spectrum disorder

Some higher functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are reported to produce perseverative talk, especially around ‘special interests’. Topic perseveration is a form of pragmatic impairment captured in Prizant and Rydells (1993) continuum of unconventional verbal behaviour in autism. Although widely reported, there is little systematic empirical research into this phenomenon. This paper considers the utility of Conversation Analysis in developing knowledge in this area, drawing upon data involving a boy with an ASD interacting with a researcher and a mobile robot platform. Although a frequency analysis of the boys talk on a single topic may suggest that it is perseverative in nature, in a sequential analysis of both talk and non‐spoken activities this study aims to show how these may be interactionally‐embedded. It is suggested that, in considering the interactional salience of apparently perseverative talk, it can be useful to explore the participation framework in which the topic is revisited.

Robots as embodied beings - interactionally sensitive body movements in interactions among autistic children and a robot

The general context of the work presented in this paper is assistive robotics with our long-term aim to support children with autism. This paper is part of an investigation into what ways and to what extent a robot can assume the role of a social mediator - encouraging autistic children to interact with the robot, with each other and with co-present adults. The article provides a case study evaluation of segments of trials where four children with autism interacted with a robot as well as with each other. It focuses primarily on the ways in which the autistic children were found to skilfully orientate and reorientate their bodies in a way that was sensitive to the activities of the adult (such as requests and adjustments to the robot), the robot (its position and movement) and another child. Results are presented using an analysis of interaction informed by conversation analytic principles. The analysis showed how the children exhibited interaction skills where the robot served as a salient object mediating joint attention with other children.

Embodiment and cognitive learning --- can a humanoid robot help children with autism to learn about tactile social behaviour?

The work presented in this paper is part of our investigation in the ROBOSKIN project. The project aims to develop new robot capabilities based on the tactile feedback provided by novel robotic skin. The main objective of the project is to develop cognitive mechanisms to improve human-robot interaction capabilities. One application domain that is investigated in the project is robot-assisted play in the context of autism therapy. The article provides a case study evaluation of segments of trials where tactile interactions were observed between children with autism and the humanoid robot KASPAR which was equipped with the newly developed tactile sensing capabilities. A preliminary observational analysis was undertaken which applied, in abbreviated form, certain principles from ethnography and conversation analysis. The analysis first reports initial observations concerning range of tactile behaviours that children displayed towards KASPAR and the change in these across the trials. Subsequently the analysis examines in detail one sequence of interaction in which a childs tactile actions towards KASPAR are considered in terms of their responsiveness to the sequence of interaction in which they occur --- and specifically to the intricate details of KASPARs responses to the childs tactile behaviour. In this way the paper suggests that children appear to interact in a tactile manner quite spontaneously with KASPAR, that the childs tactile actions become modified through exposure to KASPAR and that children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can demonstrate a marked responsiveness to the behaviours that KASPAR displays in sequences of tactile interaction.

Autistic Children’s Co-ordination of Gaze and Talk: Re-examining the ‘Asocial’ Autist

Autism is generally conceptualized as a childhood neurodevelopmental disorder resulting in life-long disability and high care requirements for the majority of individuals concerned. In the UK there are around 500 000 persons so diagnosed (NAS 1999), attracting much research interest. Contemporary accounts of Autism emerging from both research and practitioner perspectives draw upon ‘Wing’s triad of impairments’ (e.g. Wing 1993): ‘core’ categories referring to impairments in language, social interaction and, more variably, imagination/flexible thinking. Their presence, which may be accompanied by a host of other ‘secondary’ symptoms, are central to the diagnosis of the syndrome; they underpin and validate most taxonomic and psychiatric classificatory systems of Autism e.g. DSM IV (APA 1995) and ICD-10 (WHO 1993).

Looking or Spotting: A Conversation Analytic Perspective on Interaction between a Humanoid Robot, a Co-present Adult, and a Child with an ASC

There is a danger that when we look at the behaviour of children with an Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) we can wind up behaving like the character searching for his key in a well-known Mulla Nasruddin Sufi tale. In The Lamp and Key the protagonist is described as searching in his garden for a key that he had lost inside his house. When a neighbour asked why he searched in the garden, when the key had been lost indoors, he replied, ‘Because there is much more light here than in my house’. This chapter draws on conversation analytic ideas to suggest that checklists and coding schedules can be a bit like Mulla Nasruddin’s lamp — perhaps highlighting some interesting behaviours at the expense of important others that lie elsewhere, outside of that which the list illuminates. In examining these issues, the chapter will consider some of the potential limitations of using checklists to either make diagnoses of ASCs or to measure the manifestation of observable behaviours that are associated with ASCs. This is particularly important in light of contemporary debates regarding the classification of autism in terms of the language of mental health and disability (see O’Reilly, Karim, & Lester, Chapter 14, this volume).

‘That proves my point’: How mediums reconstrue disconfirmation in medium–sitter interactions

Previous research has examined how the talk of mediums attends to the epistemological status of their readings. Such work has identified that mediums frequently use question-framed propositions that are typically confirmed by the sitter, thereby conferring epistemological status on the medium. This study seeks to investigate what happens when the sitter disconfirms the propositions of the medium. The study focuses on the ways in which such disconfirmation can be responded to such that it is reconstrued as evidence of the psychic nature of the mediums reading. Televised demonstrations of psychic readings involving British and US mediums and their sitters are analysed. The results suggest that mediums rework disconfirmation as proof in several ways: first, by emphasizing the different access that sitter and medium have to knowledge (e.g., about the future); second, as evidence that the medium has access to the actual voice of the deceased (and may therefore mishear what the deceased has said to them); and third, as revealing an important truth that has hitherto been concealed from the sitter. The implications of these findings are considered for cases where speakers bring different and potentially competing, epistemological resources to an interaction.

Conversation Analysis with Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder and Limited Verbal Ability

In this chapter, Dickerson and Robins outline the way in which examining body movement, gaze, and gesture and their sequential placement can facilitate a better understanding of interactions where a child with an ASD has limited productive language ability. Specifically, the chapter demonstrates the way in which drawing on the principles of conversation analysis in the careful analysis of video recordings can reveal intricacies and competencies that might otherwise be easily missed. The chapter starts by outlining the practical and ethical considerations that should inform data collection and then illustrates the sorts of discoveries that can emerge when careful attention is paid, not simply to spoken communication in isolation but to embodied communication in context.