“It’s important to think of Pepper as a teaching aid or resource external to the classroom”: A social robot in a school for autistic children

Lemaignan, Séverin; Newbutt, Nigel; Rice, Louis; Daly, Joe

Abstract

For a period of 3 weeks in June 2021, we embedded a social robot (Softbank Pepper) in a Special Educational Needs (SEN) school for autistic children. The robot’s behaviours and integration into the school were co-designed with the children and teachers, with a focus on improving the well-being of the pupils. Using a mix-method approach, we studied the robot’s adoption over the course of the study, and the impact of the robot’s presence on the children well-being and the school ecosystem. We found that the robot successfully integrated within the school; it fostered and maintained a steady level of interactions (330 interactions, 16h of continuous use over 3weeks) with a small yet meaningful group of children with a positive impact on their well-being; and it led to a nuanced conversation with the students and school staff about the role and impact of such a social technology in a SEN school.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 8, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Oct 31, 2022
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 17, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 31, 2022
• Journal: International Journal of Social Robotics
• Print ISSN: 1875-4791
• Electronic ISSN: 1875-4805
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1083–1104
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-022-00928-4
• Keywords: Social robotics; Responsible AI; Autism; Child–robot interaction; Participatory design; Well-being
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10091175
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12369-022-00928-4