Robots Help Teach Social Skills to Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder - News Center - The University of Texas at Dallas

Robots and humans socialize frequently in pop fiction -- think of Wall-E and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Now, a UT Dallas researcher is giving the fantasy of robotic friends a practical edge with a robot that teaches social skills to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Dr. Pamela Rollins, associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, explained that individuals with ASD often have social anxiety. Learning social interactions via a less threatening interface -- a robot -- may help patients better identify emotions and use specific social skills with humans, like holding a conversation. "Some preliminary data has shown that individuals with autism start talking to the robots when they don't talk to other people," Rollins said. Rollins, who conducts research at the Callier Center for Communication Disorders, is working with a team of autism experts and robotics designers at the company Robokind to create Robots4Autism.