Minimalistic Toy Robot Encourages Verbal and Emotional Expressions in Autism

Language offers the possibility to transfer information between speaker and listener who both possess the ability to use it. Using a “speaker-listener” situation, we have compared the verbal and the emotional expressions of neurotypical and autistic children aged 6 to 7 years. The speaker was always a child (neurotypical or autistic); the listener was a human InterActor or an InterActor robot, i.e., a small toy robot that reacts to speech expression by nodding only. The results suggest that a robot characterized by predictable reactions facilitate autistic children in expression. When comparing to the performance of neurotypical children, the data would indicate that minimalistic artificial environments have the potential to open the way for neuronal organization and reorganization with the ability to support the embrainment of verbal and emotional information processing among autistic children. Keywords-brain development; neurotypical children; children with autism; minimalistic robot; language; emotion;