Robot-Mediated Group Instruction
Overview
This project designed and studied a robot-mediated group-instruction intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. The work addresses a practical limitation in much of the existing literature: social-robot interventions are often evaluated one-on-one, while classroom participation requires children to navigate shared attention, peers, and changing group dynamics.
Research Focus
The intervention gave children opportunities to practice attending to and responding to instructional requests in a group setting. The study compared learning behavior during robot-led and human-led sessions across multiple intervention sessions, with an emphasis on whether the robot could support sustained participation rather than only a short novelty effect.
Contribution
Learning behaviors were similar across robot-led and human-led instruction, and the study did not observe a novelty effect over repeated sessions. The project contributes evidence that social robots can be designed as structured educational partners for group-interaction practice, not only as one-to-one tutoring systems.
