Effects of robot and computer-based intervention on learning action word symbols of AAC for children with autism spectrum disorder

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of robot and computer-based intervention on learning action word symbols of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for three preschool children with autism spectrum disorder. Methods: This study used an adapted alternating treatment design to compare the effects of robots and computers on learning action word symbols of AAC. Twenty symbols of action words in the 'Ewha-AAC symbols set (Park et al., 2014; Yeon et al., 2016)' were selected and divided into two groups: Set A and Set B. Symbols of Set A and Set B were exposed through a robot and computer during three phases, which were the baseline, experimental, and generalization phases. Results: All three subjects who were trained using the educational robot showed improvements in comprehending action word symbols. However, only two out of the three subjects showed improvements in learning with the computer. In the case of generalization phase, all three subjects who were trained using the educational robot and the computer showed improvements. Comparing the improvement levels between the two interventions in both phases, the effectiveness of the educational robot was generally higher than that of the computer. Conclusion: Both methods had positive effects on learning action word symbols of AAC, while the robot-based intervention showed higher improvement levels than the computer-based intervention.