2018-Porayska-Pomsta-ECHOES-manuscript-TOCHI-submitted.pdf (3.71 MB)
Blending human and artificial intelligence to support autistic children’s social communication skills
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 15:07 authored by Kaska Porayska-Pomsta, Alyssa M Alcorn, Katerina Avramides, Sandra Beale, Sara Bernardini, Mary Ellen Foster, Christopher Frauenberger, Judith Good, Karen Guldberg, Wendy Keay-Bright, Lila Kossyvaki, Oliver Lemon, Marilena Mademtzi, Rachel Menzies, Helen Pain, Gnanathusharan Rajendran, Annalu Waller, Sam Wass, Tim J SmithThis paper examines the educational efficacy of a learning environment in which children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) engage in social interactions with an artificially intelligent (AI) virtual agent and where a human practitioner acts in support of the interactions. A multi-site intervention study in schools across the UK was conducted with 29 children with ASC and learning difficulties, aged 4-14 years old. For reasons related to data completeness and amount of exposure to the AI environment, data for 15 children was included in the analysis. The analysis revealed a significant increase in the proportion of social responses made by ASC children to human practitioners. The number of initiations made to human practitioners and to the virtual agent by the ASC children also increased numerically over the course of the sessions. However, due to large individual differences within the ASC group, this did not reach significance. Although no evidence of transfer to the real-world post-test was shown, anecdotal evidence of classroom transfer was reported. The work presented in this paper offers an important contribution to the growing body of research in the context of AI technology design and use for autism intervention in real school contexts. Specifically, the work highlights key methodological challenges and opportunities in this area by leveraging interdisciplinary insights in a way that (i) bridges between educational interventions and intelligent technology design practices, (ii) considers the design of technology as well as the design of its use (context and procedures) on par with one another, and (iii) includes design contributions from different stakeholders, including children with and without ASC diagnosis, educational practitioners and researchers.
Funding
ECHOES II: Improving Children's Social Interaction through Exploratory Learning in a Multimodal Environment; G0306; ESRC; RES-139-25-0395
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
ACM Transactions on Human-Computer InteractionISSN
1073-0516Publisher
Association for Computing MachineryExternal DOI
Issue
6Volume
25Page range
35 1-35Department affiliated with
- Informatics Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Creative Technology Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2018-09-18First Open Access (FOA) Date
2019-01-10First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2018-09-17Usage metrics
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