Promoting social communication skills in autism spectrum disorder through robotics and virtual worlds

The chapter aims to present the plan of a research project that has the objective of testing how the use of social robots can effectively enhance communication and relational skills in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. After a brief introduction on social communication skills in the spectrum, the chapter will outline previous studies demonstrating that social robots can be useful to open a communicative channel in people with autism, acting as mediators within social situations. Key advantages include the predictability and emotional simplicity of robots, which can be programmed to meet the sensory needs of each individual with autism. Moreover, they allow for the implementation of increasingly complex communicative exchanges. To promote the generalization of skills learned through interaction with the robot, the experimental design also includes the use of virtual environments where individuals can practice skills learned in an initial social context, leading ultimately to the application of these skills in a real-world setting.