Tayler Whitmer and Dr. Bonnie Brinton, Department of Communication Disorders
The Therapist in the Loop: Assistive Robotics (TiLAR) project is a broad-based research study that seeks to improve joint attention in children with low-functioning autism by using a humanoid robot in concert with traditional intervention. The goal of this project was to monitor the frequency of tantrum and non-engagement behaviors and determine if the interaction with the robot decreased in occurrence over time.
Many challenges arose as the study progressed; especially in developing an adequate coding system. There were several complicated factors to be addressed in a single project. Though this particular research study focused only on tantrum and non-engagement behaviors, the complete project focused on behaviors such as initiating and responding actions that related to attempts of social interaction. Due to the complexity of the data that needed to be collected, as well as the diversity of behaviors of each of the four participants, creating a reliable coding system took much longer than originally anticipated. The original coding plan that we had created was too complex and detailed to be effectively functional. The terms and behaviors that needed to be coded had to be simplified in order to reliably code each type of behavior. In these processes, the term previously defined as “non-engagement” proved to be too vague, as it was evident that a child can still be engaged in an activity if they are more than 5 feet away from the interaction. Thus, using this standard to define non-engagement was not accurate. Therefore, the portion of the study regarding observing non- engagement behaviors had to be removed from the current study. However, we found that tantrum behaviors could still be redefined, observed and quantified.
After further research, the removal of coding “non-engagement” behaviors from the proposed study was determined to be clinically insignificant. However, what is significant is the child’s learning environment or the child’s mental state of being in a position to learn. Ultimately being “non-engaged” and exhibiting tantrum behaviors both inhibit the learning process (Vollmer, Northup, Ringdahl, LeBlanc & Chauvin, 1996). Tantrum behaviors are simply easier to recognize and define and, therefore, possible to reliably code. Focusing on these behaviors will allow a more accurate assessment of the effect of the robot on the children’s behaviors. It will also allow the learning environment to be assessed. This will make data collection in the future less convoluted and while also increasing the reliability.
Another positive outcome of the research done thus far is the creation of a quantifiable and valid data collection system. The creation of a “bin” system was used in all the attempts to obtain reliability and, despite difficulty with the coding systems, the collection system proved to be successful in all cases. It is a system where there are several “bins” or segments; each with an equal time value, where each behavior displayed in each respective bin is marked. This way, all behaviors are noted as a function of both time and frequency. This same system, or an adaptation of it, will be used in further data collection of specifically tantrum behaviors.
One of the highlights of this project was that a preliminary version of the results was presented at a research conference in April 2012 at Brigham Young University. The purpose and goal of the TiLAR project, along with the participants, treatment, assessment and expected results were successfully presented. A more recent version of the paper will be presented at the November meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in Atlanta, GA.
Because of several challenges that were encountered with creating an appropriate coding system as well as several changes that needed to be made as a result, raw and analyzed data concerning tantrum or non-engagement behaviors as a factor of the interaction with an interactive robot have not yet been collected. However, other initiating, responding and joint attention behaviors, which were included within the scope of the project, have been successfully collected. Further research must be continued in order to gain valid and reliable results regarding tantrum behaviors using the advances made and obstacles that have been overcome in this study. The importance of retrieving tantrum frequency data are still critical to this and future studies related to autism and learning. If robots can improve the learning environments for children with low-functioning autism they may play an important role in intervention (Acerson, 2011). Ultimately, such interventions may lead to gains in the quality of life for individuals with autism.
Sources
- Acerson, Aersta K. (2011). The Effects of the Use of a Humanoid Robot on Social Engagement in TwoChildren with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Thesis. Brigham Young University.
- Vollmer, Timothy R., Northup, John., Ringdahl, Joel E., LeBlanc, Linda A. & Chauvin, Tanya M. (1996). Functional Analysis of Severe Tantrums Displayed by Children With Language Delays. Behavior Modification, 20, 97-115.